Steph and Ayesha Curry are helping with youth development through books.
Last year, the two started their free bookstore school bus. Now, they are assisting in building mini-libraries across the Oakland, California, area.
The couple says that they are building 40 “Little Town Libraries” around Oakland in order to promote book sharing and childhood literacy in the neighborhoods.
“We hope that these free, book-sharing libraries will help plant the seeds. This is needed to continue growing a culture of literacy for the next generation in Oakland.”
Eat. Learn. Play, the Curry’s nonprofit, and Little Free Library have teamed up to begin the new project. The Little Free Library is a network of close 150,000 small libraries that are located outside of homes and businesses internationally, in order to encourage book sharing.
The libraries will be stationed in low socio-economic communities which includes East and West Oakland, Fruitvale, and Chinatown. After two years of learning online, only 15.4% of Black and 12.5% of Latino/a elementary school children in Oakland are reading on their correct grade level.
More than 50,000 free books are planned to be available as a part of the new initiative.
