Chapel Hill, NC
ph: 919-428-0511
ginger
Have books to donate?
Drop them at
Twig,
Our Latest News
Like pizza? Want a fun, easy way to support Book Harvest? Simply dine at California Pizza Kitchen at Southpoint Mall on Wednesday, September 12, and CPK will donate 20% of your check to us! How cool is that?
To print out the flyer you'll need to present at CPK, click here.
Please see www.bookharvestnc.org/about_us/presslinks for the latest press coverage of Book Harvest!
Archived News:
Upcoming events:
- November 5, 2011: Book Harvest Day at
in Chapel Hill
- November 1 - December 31, 2011: Holiday Book Drive Barnes and Noble at New Hope Commons in Durham
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October 15, 2011: 
in Durham and Raleigh
Announcing Books on Break!
In this inaugural year, we plan to supply 10 books to 10 students at 10 elementary schools, for a total of 1000 books. School social workers will choose students who will benefit, and chosen students will be allowed to select their books themselves. Summer reading is critical for combating the "summer slide" and especially important for future school success.
COMING UP: MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND
Please join Ginger Young Gallery for our Spring 2011
ART SALE and BOOK DRIVE for Book Harvest!
Saturday, May 7 10:00 – 6:00
Sunday, May 8 12:00 – 6:00
Other times by appointment -- please call (919) 932-6003
Paintings, garden art, Haitian oil drum art, and more!
Works by 70 folk and self-taught artists.
One-of-a-kind Mother’s Day and graduation gifts starting at $15.
Sensational pound cake and field-fresh strawberries.
Please bring your gently used children’s books
to donate to Book Harvest, a new initiative that
gives books to kids who need them.
Everyone who donates books will receive a
gold coin made by Peter Loose - while they last!
5802 Brisbane Drive, Chapel Hill
Take I-40 to exit 266; go 1.3 miles north on
Hwy 86 (toward Hillsborough). Turn right on Mt. Sinai Rd.
After 7/10 of a mile, turn left on Brisbane Drive.
Questions? (919) 932-6003 or ginger@gingeryoung.com
Preview the art at www.gingeryoung.com.
Follow Ginger Young Gallery on Facebook!
Summer 2011 Internships Available!
Please circulate!
April 6, 2011
Book Harvest is a Triangle initiative to collect gently used children’s books and place them in the hands and homes of children who need them. We believe that books are a vital part of a healthy childhood, and we aspire to help all Triangle children create home libraries of books they have selected.
Since Book Harvest began in December 2010, we have collected more than 12,000 books and have placed more than 6,000 books on free book shelves in a dozen locations. Because of these strong early results, we are confident that we are serving a critical need in our community and are eager to “grow” Book Harvest to the next level.
We are seeking two college or graduate students to work with us in the summer of 2011 to help expand Book Harvest’s capacity and establish best practices. Since Book Harvest is currently seeking tax-exempt status and, unfortunately, does not yet have funding, these internships are unpaid. What we can offer is an exciting opportunity to help shape a fledgling organization, gain valuable experience working at the community level, learn firsthand about the issue of children’s literacy, and influence the lives of and future prospects for many children right in our own community.
Below are brief descriptions of the two internships we are seeking to fill. We hope to fill these two positions with energetic, creative, and motivated students. Depending on the responses we receive, we may place a second intern in each of these positions.
Research and Fieldwork Intern
This intern will endeavor to answer these questions:
- What do we know about the role of books in the lives and future outcomes of children?
- Which existing organizations and programs around the country most effectively incorporate this data into their practices, and how?
- How can Book Harvest learn from and adopt these best practices?
The intern will tackle these questions by:
--conducting a survey of the literature on the effects of books on the lives of children, and writing a concept paper for Book Harvest that incorporates and cites the relevant studies and their findings.
--researching other organizations which connect kids with books. This will include contacting these organizations to find out more about their relative success; developing a list of organizations with a similar mission; and writing an action plan that offers recommendations for Book Harvest based on these findings.
--working with others at Book Harvest to produce a more general planning document, detailing what our steps and goals should be over the next five years. Ideally, this document will include next steps for our own growth and a proposal for how we can develop a technical assistance and replication model, so that other communities can establish their own Book Harvests.
Qualifications: commitment to social justice; self-directed; creative; experienced in research and writing; comfortable with interviewing and asking questions; effective at meeting deadlines.
Partnerships and Outreach Intern
This intern will endeavor to answer these questions:
- How can Book Harvest systematize and expand the book collection process (done primarily via book drives at schools and in neighborhoods)?
- How can we work most effectively with our distribution partners to ensure that the children they serve have home libraries?
- How can we recruit and retain volunteers from the university community and the larger community? The long-term involvement of volunteers is a big determinant in how many books we are able to collect and distribute.
- How can we build a social media and email presence, so that we can build our base of volunteers, book donors, and supporters?
The intern will tackle these questions by:
--contacting current and potential collection partners to schedule book drives throughout the 2011-12 academic year; ideally, we will have one major school drive each month, and a neighborhood drive each week.
--creating a master calendar for the 2011-12 academic year that shows these drives and that can appear on our website.
--meeting at least once during the summer with each of our distribution partners to assess together how the Book Harvest partnership is working and what we can do to improve it.
--establishing contact at the local universities (UNC-CH and Duke to start) to recruit students to serve as regular volunteer liaisons to our distribution partners (similar to the TABLE model).
--recruiting volunteers to run one-time book drives in their neighborhoods (similar to the PORCH model).
--working with area middle and high schools to offer opportunities to students to fulfill their community service requirements by volunteering to sort books and to perform other needed tasks.
--entering our volunteers and contacts into a database; drafting and sending the first monthly email marketing newsletter to these volunteers; and exploring other ways to strengthen our base with outreach via Facebook, emails, and other social media tools.
Qualifications: commitment to social justice; self-directed; entrepreneurial; experienced in outreach and followup; strong writing and communication skills; experience with implementing new ideas; team player.
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Other important areas that we need to pay attention to in these first months (and which interns may have some involvement in) include:
--determining how we measure our success: can we develop a means to assess the school success of students who receive Book Harvest books, comparing them to a control group? This might best be done in conjunction with a university entity, such as the UNC School of Public Health or Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
--developing new models of distributing books where they will have the biggest impact. In particular, can we work with UNC Hospitals and Duke Hospital to start a program of giving regular supplies of books to new mothers (similar to Born to Read)?
--evaluating which of our different types of sites (clinics, afterschool, schools themselves, etc.) are the most effective in getting kids to take home books that they have selected. Related: as request for free book shelves come in, can we develop a priority list, so that we establish partnerships first with those that are most effective and so that we proactively seek partnerships with those that help us meet our goal of every kid owning books?
--exploring possible sources of funding from foundations and corporations.
The interns will most likely work out of a shared office in downtown Chapel Hill. They will meet weekly to report on their progress and discuss their work with Ginger Young and with other Book Harvest volunteers who have expertise and who can serve as a resource to them.
Finally, all interns and regular volunteers will be asked to participate in a retreat toward the end of the summer, where we share our findings and our progress. We will use this discussion to set a measurable GOAL for Book Harvest (for example, that we aim to work with partners to ensure that every child in the Triangle owns books by 20__) and to prioritize our activities designed to realize that goal.
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TO APPLY:
Please submit
- a statement of interest;
- a resume, CV, or equivalent; and
- the names of three references, with their contact info and a brief statement about their relationship to you
to Ginger Young, Book Harvest’s founder and director, at ginger@bookharvestnc.org. Be sure to indicate which of the two internships (Research and Fieldwork or Partnerships and Outreach) you are seeking. Please apply ASAP; we will begin considering applications on Monday, April 18.
To learn more about Book Harvest, please visit www.bookharvestnc.org.
Thank you!
Book Harvest's free book shelf at Catholic Charities in Durham, March 2011.
Contact us today!
We welcome your questions and queries. Please see our Contact Us page for complete contact information.
Chapel Hill, NC
ph: 919-428-0511
ginger
