Special to The Truth
In 2021, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL) revealed its new strategic priorities – a set of goals and focus that would define the Library over the next five years. As part of that work, the Library challenged itself to think of new ways to support the customers and to work better with community partners.
To that end, TLCPL is excited to announce a new partnership with Books 4 Buddies (B4B), a non-profit organization that has been supporting literacy initiatives in neighborhood communities for nearly 10 years. The Library is happy to share that B4B will become a new affinity organization for the Library, supporting the Library in achieving its goals of improving literacy in the community, but specifically three of its new strategic priorities:
1. Help Children Learn to Read (birth – third grade)
2. Help Students Succeed (third – twelfth grade)
3. Serve as the Go-To Community Connection and Hub
B4B, founded in 2012, by L. Touré McCord, II and his grandmother, Laneta Goings, is a campaign that encourages literacy and provides leisure reading material, free of charge, to underserved youth, especially boys, in Northwest Ohio. Schools, community centers, and other locations near youth who may lack access to books at home, serve as sites for B4B’s lively, interactive giveaway events where reading is always presented as big fun!
While both organizations will remain separate legal entities with their own operating boards, becoming an official affinity organization for the Toledo Library will allow for greater collaboration, setting and meeting of goals, and community impact. TLCPL will work alongside of B4B to continue their mission, as it aligns so very well with the work the Library is committed to doing.