Duke-community partnership to deliver 1,500 new books in Durham

A Duke University initiative will provide 1,500 new books in English and Spanish to children of low-income Durham families on Tuesday, March 10.

The Children's Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI), based at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, is teaming up with the Durham Head Start Program to provide the books to 27 classrooms serving 500 children in the Head Start program. Cisco Systems will provide new bookcase libraries to each of the 27 classrooms.

The books and bookcase libraries will be presented in a 9 a.m. ceremony on March 10 at the Durham Head Start headquarters, 215 W. Seminary St. (Media coverage of the event is welcomed.)

CEHI is a research, education and outreach program that promotes childhood physical, environmental and developmental health and well-being. Last year, it began collaborating with Head Start to promote literacy in Durham.

"If kids even have a small number of print materials in their home, it significantly improves their cognitive development and better prepares them for school," says Marie Lynn Miranda, initiative director and associate professor of environmental sciences and policy at Duke. "By giving books to the kids in the Head Start program, it's a way for us to make sure we're reaching the children for whom this program could have the biggest impact."

The initiative purchased the 1,500 new books from the Bring Me A Book Foundation with money donated by the community.

Head Start is a nationwide, federally funded program that provides education, health, nutrition and school-readiness services to low-income children and their families.