Give Back, Give Books is Rochester Education Foundation's program to give books to city school students to take home or for city school libraries. Launched in 2006, we accept and distribute new books, encourage exciting literacy events with book distributions, and engage more community members in this effort.

Please contact us if you would like to donate new books, create a book drive at your workplace or school, or participate in a literacy event giving books to young people.

Our new Teachers' Choice application process encourages teachers, librarians and not-for-profits serving city students to apply for the more than 1,500 new books REF will be donating to city students this March 2009. Since launching our new process, we have received more than 160 applications for the books. If you have applied, please note that we will not be able to notify everyone individually if they will be receiving books. We will, however, post the names of all successful applicants by March 31. We hope to offer regular book distributions and thus please keep trying if you are not successful the first time.

To date REF has proudly donated more than 17,000 new books to help build the home libraries of city students, and to city school libraries. In honor of our efforts, REF received the Friend of the Library Award in June 2008 from the Rochester School Library Association.

Give Back, Give Books has also:

• Served as a co-sponsor of Books and Blankets, through which we hope to donate 4,000 books and a cozy blankets to city students in December 2008. Our co-sponsor is Buddies, Bridges and Brains, a dynamic Victor group. Click here to learn more or to make a donation in support of this effort.
• Donated small new book libraries to 9 city high schools.
• Worked with city school librarians to distribute literacy calendars donated to 5,000 city students by Wegmans in 2006 and 2007

Primary supporters of Give Back, Give Books in 2008-2009 are the the M & T Bank Foundation, Rep. Joseph Robach, Time-Warner, Bucks4Books, the Marie C. and Joseph C. Wilson Foundation and the Rochester Obama committee, which donated the proceeds of their inauguration dinner event to REF to purchase books for city students.

Did you know that...

• Many city school students do not have books at home.
• The average fiction book in city school libraries is about 20 years old.
• Providing books to children and school libraries is a proven way to help students become more successful academically and in the future.

Help us make a difference.