Program Partners
We partner with schools, businesses, and community organizers to provide book access and literacy resources to children across our community and beyond. This work would not be possible without their collaboration, and we are so grateful for their support!
Pre-K School Partners
Each month, Books for Keeps delivers 3 new books to every Pre-K student in Athens-Clarke County to help further develop positive associations with books and learning before finding themselves in kindergarten. Books are always developmentally appropriate and typically slot into a few categories: social-emotional learning, letter and number foundations, bi-lingual, and seasonal celebrations.
Elementary School Partners
Each spring, Books for Keeps visits the below partners with hundreds of brand new, high-interest books in hand to provide every student with the opportunity to select 12 books to take home for keeps over the summer. These events would not be possible without the collaboration from school principals, media specialists, and teachers. Thank you!
Thank you to our School Partners!
Clarke County School District
Atlanta Public School District
Warren County School District
Bettye Henderson Holston Elementary (formerly Alps Road Elementary)
Barnett Shoals Elementary
Barrow Elementary
Johnnie Lay Burks Elementary (formerly Chase Street Elementary)
Cleveland Road Elementary
Fowler Drive Elementary
Howard B. Stroud Elementary
Gaines Road Elementary
Judia Jackson Harris Elementary
Timothy Road Elementary
Whit Davis Road Elementary
Whitehead Road Elementary
Dunbar Elementary
Frederick Wilson Benteen Elementary
M.E. Freeman Elementary
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has been alive in Athens Clarke County for nearly 10 years, with BFK adopting full oversight and program management in 2021. Each month, an age-appropriate book along with tools to grow literacy in the home and develop kindergarten readiness is mailed to the child's home. Children age 0-5 are eligible to participate. The program is funded through generous donations from individual donors, families, and local sponsors. Register your child today and/or consider sponsoring a child's participation here.
National Book Access Association
The mission of the National Book Access Association is to strengthen the impact of book distribution organizations through strategic collaboration, resource-sharing, and professional development, in order to increase the capacity of the sector to provide equal access to books for all people. We are proud to be a member collaborating with other agencies to work towards these goals.
Creature Comforts' Get Comfortable Campaign
We are grateful to partner with Creature Comforts, who selected early literacy as the first multi-year impact area of its philanthropic project Get Comfortable, targeting 3rd-grade reading proficiency as its key metric of success. For the next 5 years, Get Comfortable is committed to increasing the percentage of Clarke County 3rd-grade students reading at grade level from 20% to 60%. In collaboration with the GC team, Books for Keeps is leading program implementation efforts for the new Literacy Mentor Program in pursuit of this goal.
Diverse Book Coalition
The Diverse Books for All Coalition is a national consortium of nonprofits and membership organizations working together to increase access to affordable, high quality children’s books by and about diverse races, cultures, identities, and abilities.
Hear From Our Partners
Tanya Hudson,
Burks Elementary Media Specialist
"Books for Keeps is committed to getting books to kids however they can and figure out creative ways to do that. I would love to see it everywhere it's needed - and it's needed everywhere."