GlobalGiving.org: Between The Lines

Between The Lines November 2011 Report

Katie Shuck — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:48:13 GMT

To our donors: your generosity and support have been greatly appreciated.

The Between the Lines project has completed its first reading with Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Thirty-three mothers read to 48 children. Another reading was held at Santiam Correctional Facility where 11 fathers read to 23 children. Following both of the readings, Between the Lines volunteers took an educational tour of the correctional facilities and gained a better understanding of life in prison.

Some of the responses we received after the readings were

"This experience was great. I cried and felt close to my children."
"The volunteers were absolutely wonderful. The sincerity and kindness were so helpful during this emotional time. Thank you so much for this experience."
"This is a great program. I didn't think I would be comfortable doing this but the volunteers and staff were so helpful. I loved this and know my child will too."

We will be busy during December wrapping up the new books to send to all of the children whose parents read to them and then mailing the books, along with the CD of the parents reading the books, to all of the children.

Links:

Watch for Between The Lines updates here too

Between The Lines Summer/Fall 2011

Kate Cronen — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:50:04 GMT

This fall Between the Lines will expand the project by offering Digital video recordings of readings. We have the goals to increase the numbers served by increasing the number of reading. The program partners with the Army National Guard and is working to expand to other divisions like the Air National Guard.

The project was had video equipment but will still need supplies like DVDs and children's books to make it a success!

Links:

Between The Lines Page

BTL Update - April 2011

Lexie Mobley — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:32:57 GMT

Junior League volunteer reading Pinkalicious

It has been a great year for Between the Lines for many, many reasons.

The partnership between Bring Me a Book and BTL has been very successful. The Bring Me A Book workshops held for inmates one week prior to their BTL readings have been instrumental in teaching the inmates to read with expression and character voices. As BTL volunteers, we have seen a great improvement in how inmates are reading. The feedback has been very positive from the inmates and their enthusiasm is evident when they are reading.

We have hosted 4 readings this year at Coffee Creek and Santiam facilities with 105 parents reading to 159 children!! In addition, we had a reading with the National Guard in November for deploying soldiers and their families. At the event, 44 soldiers read to 85 children. Colonel Dial was so impressed with all the volunteers that each one of us was personally thanked by him and given a coin of honor!

In March we held our first Book Drive at Barnes and Noble Tanasbourne. The bookstore was hopping, filled with laughter and chatter of many actives, sustainers, and old friends catching up! With 2 story times led by the wonderful Lindsey Lyons, there were over 30 children at the reading of one of our most popular books, Pinkalicious! In addition to the readings, the heroes of the Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue crew were on hand to show children their fire truck and teach them about fire safety. We had a tremendous turnout and a large amount of books donated to Between the Lines. Great fun was had by all and THANK YOU so much to everyone who came out to support us……your generosity is sincerely appreciated!!

With our year quickly coming to a close, we have one more wrapping party to wrap and package the books and CDs from our last reading event in April. At this final reading event we had 33 inmates read to 54 children. As always, our experiences with the Junior League have been very rewarding and remind us how truly fortunate we are to be able to help others.

Junior League Volunteers at the book drive

Links:

Visit our Facebook page for more photos and info on our work.

BTL Update 12.22.10

Lexie Mobley — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:00:35 GMT

Happy Holidays!

Between the Lines has had a very busy quarter! Here is a list of our reading events we have had this fall/winter and the numbers we served in the community:

Coffee Creek Correctional Facility Reading Event | Wilsonville, OR
October 9, 2010
33 inmates read to 47 children

Santiam Correctional Institution Reading Event | Salem, OR
November 7, 2010
26 dads read to 37 children

National Guard Reading Event | Anderson Readiness Center - Salem, OR
44 soldiers read to 85 children

All volunteers were personally thanked by Colonel Dial and were given a coin of honor for their service that day! Thanks again to everyone that made this such a successful event!

In addition to serving the community in this capacity, the committee also solicited for used books to stock the adult library and the children's book shelf in the visiting room at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. We were able to collect over 500 books for them! Literacy is such an important part of our mission and we wanted to help both the inmates and their children obtain access to better reading options inside the facility.

We are looking forward to a successful 2011 and have plans to expand the National Guard reading events to hopefully include some at the Portland base.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Links:

Between the Lines Facebook Page

Update | 10.1.10

Lexie Mobley — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:08:12 GMT

Between the Lines has started the league year with a great committee of 10 volunteers. We had a volunteer orientation meeting at the end of August to educate the volunteers on the reading event process and hand out committee binders with all the committee details for the year.

Our first reading event will occur on Saturday, October 9 at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, OR. We have over 30 mothers registered to read with us that day. All of these mothers need to be on the highest incentive level in regards to their behavior in order to be given the opportunity to participate in our reading event. This program helps give them a reason to work hard and maintain this status of good behavior.

We have been working all summer with the Bring Me A Book committee that is also a part of the community programs for the Junior League of Portland. Their program provides workshops to underprivledged parents that may not have the access to education of actively reading to their children. Between the Lines has introduced Bring Me a Book to the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility coordinator and on October 1, Bring Me a Book, will be hosting a reading workshop for all the mothers that are signed up to read with Between the Lines next weekend (October 9). We are really excited about this endeavor because it will help increase the level of interaction that mothers have when recording these stories to their children. The Bring Me a Book workshop will also teach them life skillls that will help them read better with their child not only next week, but in the future when hopefully they will be reunited with their child.

Between the Lines has also been working with the National Guard to coordinate a reading event for an upcoming deployment. A unit is set to deploy later this year and we have set a date of November 20 to host a reading event for this unit of men and women that will be deploying. This reading event will take place at the Anderson Readiness Center in Salem, OR.

Links:

Between the Lines Facebook Page