First Christian Member Helps Provide Books for Barbershops

When church member Carrie Gerard heard about the Books for Barbershops program, she knew it was something she wanted to support.

As part of their Black Male Achievement initiative which seeks to improve life outcomes and amplify the positive contributions of black men and boys, Metro United Way is partnering with barbers in our local neighborhoods to provide reading nooks with books for our children, because early grade reading is one of the best predictors of children's success in school, work and life. Books & Barbershops is a community-based literacy program that creates reading spaces with culturally responsive books in barbershops for boys ages 4-8. Books & Barbershop’s target demographic is African American boys ages 4-8. However, the books are available to any child that visits a partnering barbershop; we want every child in our community reading at grade level by the third grade which is a predictor of HS graduation and many other life outcomes.

The wholeness grant used to fund this ministry was made possible through your faithful financial support of our church and its ministries and help fund a variety of efforts to make our world a better place. You can find more examples of those efforts or apply for a grant to make the world a better place by clicking here.

You can read an article that Carrie wrote about her love for this program that was published by the United Way by clicking here.