Contact: readingseeds@uuroanoke.org

Founded in 2012, Reading Seeds is UUCR’s home-grown children’s literacy program. It is staffed entirely by volunteers. We aim to provide children from low-income families in the city of Roanoke a better chance at reading success by helping them build their own home libraries. 

Research shows that growing up with a home library improves skills in adult literacy, numeracy and technical problem solving. To foster literacy and a love of reading, we provide only new books. We include a Reading Seeds/UUCR bookplate in each book so the child’s name can be inscribed in the book he, she, or they receives.

Some of Our Projects

• Reading Seeds donates books to young children (infants through age 4) at three Total Action for Progress (TAP) Head Start centers. TAP Head Start is a preschool and childcare program that serves working families living in poverty. Our program donates books twice a month to the Raleigh Court, Hurt Park and Brand Hardin Sims centers. We also donate books to TAP Books Warehouse, which gives free books to people in need and raises funds for other TAP projects.
• We make quarterly deliveries of books for preK through 3rd-grade pupils attending four city elementary schools: Grandin Court, Wasena, Virginia Heights and Fishburn Park. 
• We have begun a partnership with the West End Center for Youth in Roanoke. The center serves 114 children (kindergarten through high school) who live in Roanoke’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. In addition, the books in the Center’s library are old, and moreover, they feature mainly white characters. We are discussing how to upgrade their library.
• We are donating books to New Horizons Healthcare, a nonprofit community-based family health center with three locations in Roanoke.
• We plan to provide books for a vending machine at Grandin Court Elementary School. The machine, which holds 200 books, will dispense books to pupils who earn tokens for various good deeds. 
• As opportunities arise, we connect our congregants to schools seeking adults willing to read aloud to young students.  

Our Funding

We buy our books from First Book Marketplace, a nonprofit, online resource exclusively for schools and programs that serve children in need. First Book makes the books available at a significant discount (approximately $3 to $5 each). Our book-buying funds come from a variety of sources, including UUCR’s annual operating budget; grants from the Roanoke-based Trowell Charitable Gift Fund and the Dorothy Koch Family Foundation; and donations from church members and friends. Reading Seeds also receives an annual in-kind donation of new books from Star City Reads, a literacy program of the Roanoke Public Libraries.

How You Can Help

• Donate! Please make checks payable to UUCR and indicate Reading Seeds on the memo line. Mail donations to: Reading Seeds, Unitarian Universalist Church of Roanoke, 2015 Grandin Rd., Roanoke, VA 24015. If you would like a receipt for tax purposes, be sure to include your name and mailing address with your donation.

• Volunteer! We can always use help ordering, receiving, sorting, counting, labeling, packing and delivering up to 1,000 books at a time. We could also use help with grant writing and other ways of seeking additional funds. If you are interested in getting involved, email us readingseeds@uuroanoke.org.