Supporting Educators Who Support Kids in Need 

Coronavirus has had an enormous impact on schools and left educators to implement hybrid and at-home learning plans without the necessary resources. It has left kids in need without what may be the only access they have to the Internet or to books–making at-home learning close to impossible and leaving them at a significant disadvantage. However, for every child in need, there is an educator who is working, creating, and innovating to make sure their kids don’t fall behind. First Book is doing everything we can to support the educators who are keeping kids in need engaged in a time of crisis.

• We are urgently working to get millions of books, donated by our publishing partners, to kids in need, who don’t have home libraries or Internet access for home learning. You can help us here: firstbook.org/cv. To date, we have distributed 13 million books and 3.4 million digital resources.
• We are sharing activities and resources for educators and parents to use at home through the at-home learning section on the First Book Marketplace.
• We are constantly in touch with our network of educators to assess what they need, and respond as quickly as possible.
• If you haven’t added your voice to our network, please join us here.

Mapping the Areas of Greatest Need: First Book’s COVID-19 Activation Network

First Book’s COVID-19 Activation Network map demonstrates the intense breadth and depth of need by plotting the thousands of educators funding requests we received in the wake of coronavirus-caused school closings. In partnership with PolicyMap, First Book developed the interactive map to both quantify and qualify the need. By clicking on the different map markers, you can see each individual educator’s story–read about their efforts to reach their kids amid shutdowns and social distancing, how they are working around limited access to Internet, and what they are doing to keep their kids engaged and learning.