April 13, 2023
Community Housing Partners (CHP), which provides affordable and sustainable homes throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, is expanding the CHP Reads! Summer Reading Program for grandparents and seniors in Virginia and Maryland.
In previous years, the program focused solely on youth at CHP’s multifamily communities. This year, however, CHP is inviting grandparents to join youth at participating communities in the summer program that offers free books, snacks, and reading-focused activities. In addition, CHP will launch a new program called the CHP Reads! Book Club for seniors.
The CHP Reads! Book Club is a recurring program that will bring seniors together several times throughout the summer to listen to an audiobook as a group. At the end of the program, interested seniors will receive assistance in downloading free audiobook apps on their smart devices so they can continue their new reading habit.
“Our main goal is to introduce participants to an accessible literacy resource very often already at their fingertips — audiobooks,” said Stacy Taylor, Resident Services Program Developer at CHP. “By offering audiobooks and other resources to seniors, we hope to help them discover the many benefits of reading and create new opportunities for learning and growth.”
CHP is also partnering with local libraries to share additional resources with seniors and is seeking donations to offer extras like snacks and print versions of books to send home with participants. Visit CHP’s Bucks for Books fundraising webpage to learn more about how to support this program with an online donation.
Both senior programs will be offered at CHP communities throughout Virginia and Maryland. The grandparent program will be available at Checed Warwick Apartments in Newport News; Holly Court Apartments in Kilmarnock; J. Van Story Branch Apartments in Baltimore; Lafayette Elderly Apartments in Williamsburg; Old Orchard Apartments in Pearisburg; Primrose Place Apartments in Baltimore; and Wellesley Commons in Newport News.
Meanwhile, the CHP Reads! Book Club will be available at Dolly Ann Apartments in Covington; Greenstone on 5th Apartments in Charlottesville; Hollybrook Apartments in Richmond; J. Van Story Branch Apartments and Primrose Place Apartments in Baltimore; and Tranquility at the Lakes in Virginia Beach.
Now in its fifth year, CHP Reads! has steadily grown and evolved since its inception, with CHP staff and volunteers giving out 14,000 books, installing eight new Little Free Libraries, and serving over 1,700 youth since the program’s inception. The program is run by CHP Resident Services with support from CHP Property Management. This year, two CHP Property Managers — Gloria Thomas at Hunt Ridge Apartments and Melissa Forsythe at Holly Court Apartments — have volunteered to run the youth program at communities where CHP Resident Services does not have on-site staff, helping to expand the program further. (Learn more about the CHP Reads! Summer Reading Program.)