The United Way’s Success By 6 and Strong Neighborhoods Impact Councils are working together towards their goals by installing literacy nooks in 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 now four laundromats across the Wabash Valley enrolled in the program. “Family Read, Play & Learn” nooks are developed specifically for vended laundries. The literacy nooks are already installed at Sullivan Laundry Center in Sullivan, Courtesy Cleaners on Wabash in Terre Haute, and Archer Avenue Dry Cleaning and Laundry in Marshall, IL. The newest laundromat to join the program is the Adamson’s Fabric Care Services at 711 E National Ave, Brazil.
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.
Krissie Pickering, United Way’s Success By 6 co-chair says, “We believe that being able to creatively target and reach underserved families where they are, to provide them with high-quality literacy opportunities, will help to ensure that all young children in our community are able to enter school ready to learn. Laundromats are places where families spend two hours or more, regularly. Providing fun, playful, literacy-rich environments in places where children and families spend time can offer greater exposure to the language for young children and provide literacy bonding opportunities and experiences for the whole family.”
The United Way is looking to install more of these nooks, so if you are interested contact our office at 812-235-6287.
