The United Way’s Success By 6 and Strong Neighborhoods Impact Councils are working together towards their goals by installing literacy nooks into local laundromats. The “Family Read, Play & Learn” nooks are designed to create safe, engaging places for children and families that center around literacy engagement located in laundromats. There are currently three laundromats across the Wabash Valley enrolled in the program.

“Family Read, Play & Learn” nooks are developed specifically for vended laundries. The nooks are uniquely designed to create safe, fun, and engaging spaces for children and families to read and learn together within a laundromat setting. Each kit is equipped with literacy-rich materials to support children’s early brain and language development and is a meaningful way to serve laundry owners’ community and customers. This created a natural collaboration between the councils with the promotion of literacy skills for the Success By 6 Council and the enhancement of community pride for the Strong Neighborhoods Council.

Each “Family Read, Play & Learn” nook includes a heavy-duty table/chairs, a book stand, a washable rug, 50 start-up books, and a 1-year subscription to update the collection with 20 books a month. The literacy nooks are already installed at Sullivan Laundry Center and Courtesy Cleaners on Wabash in Terre Haute and are coming soon to Archer Avenue Dry Cleaning and Laundry in Marshall, IL.

Carey LaBella, Strong Neighborhoods Co-Chair, shared, “These nooks provide a welcoming and literacy-focused environment to entertain children. In the future, we hope to partner with local libraries and organizations to continuously provide literacy activities to these local communities.”

The United Way is looking to install more of these nooks, so if you are interested contact our office at 812-235-6287.