Now in its fourth year, the CHP Reads! Summer Reading Program offers youth at CHP apartment communities with books and reading opportunities throughout the summer—and we need your help!
We are collecting donations to build and stock Little Free Libraries at four CHP apartment communities. These lending libraries will encourage reading and provide books for residents year-round.
Your monetary donation will go toward purchasing the Little Free Libraries and stocking them with books for our CHP Reads! Summer Reading Program.
Volunteers worked with youth at Friendship Village Apartments in Virginia Beach to supply books and backpacks through the CHP Reads! Summer Reading Program in 2020.
Since 2019, the CHP Reads! Summer Reading Program has aimed to offset the “summer slide,” or loss of academic progress between the school years. National research shows that the average student loses a month of academic learning every summer, but children who participate in summer reading programs like ours score higher on reading achievement tests at the beginning of the next school year.
Enrolled youth in the program receive books to read, enjoy, and keep. During the pandemic, we revamped the program with contactless book drop-offs, at-home literacy activities, and a reading challenge. CHP was able to reach youth at two dozen apartment communities in 2021 and is looking forward to reintroducing book fairs in 2022. The program will kick off in select communities in early June for National NeighborWorks Week (June 4-11) and continue throughout the summer.
CHP has reached hundreds of youth with this summer reading program in previous years and has the potential to reach hundreds more this year. Learn more about our impact in 2021.
Addison, a young resident of Overlook Terrace Apartments in Fredericksburg, Virginia, had a strong opinion about her favorite book last summer. Her answer? “Pigs Can’t Fly” because, she said, “the book was about a pig who tried to be other animals he wasn’t.” She was one of several youth at the apartment community who finished this summer with a healthy amount of reading thanks to the CHP Reads! Summer Reading Program. In 2021, CHP reached twice as many communities through this program.
