Children visiting the Gainesville office of the Georgia Division of Family and Children’s Services now have access to an entire library of Scholastic books.
The department’s Lending Library opened Wednesday morning, featuring an entire wall of books for children of all ages to read, borrow and return if they are able. Scholastic Books provided materials for the library and it is the first DFCS office in the state to have one.
State DFCS Director Tom Rawlings said kids come to the office for all kinds of reasons, including everything from abuse or trauma to WIC to Medicaid, and they wanted to encourage literacy and education to their visitors.
“Even if children and families don’t go to a regular library, so many of the children who are most vulnerable and families who are most vulnerable will come to this office to obtain benefits or seek assistance of some sort,” said Rawlings. “So it’s really important to have a significant library here, in this office, where so many of our most vulnerable come every day.”
The library is an alcove in the waiting room, featuring not just books but places to sit and multi-lingual, encouraging messages painted on the surrounding walls.
Former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and former First Lady of Georgia Sandra Deal spoke alongside Rawlings at the Region 2 office as the library was presented.
“I think this a good start,” said Sandra Deal. “There are people in need who come here for services, and if their children come with them, chose a book and sit down and read, even if they’re just looking at the pictures, they’re learning.”
At the end of the ceremony, it was announced that the library would be dedicated in honor of Sandra Deal and her education and literacy work in the community.
“Well I think it’s just a real honor that Hall County has the first one, of the real Lending Libraries that was established,” said Sandra Deal. “I was born here, I grew up here and I’m really proud of Hall County.”
The Deals spoke about how they discovered that many people in the state criminal justice system struggled with literacy and had lower education levels. Nathan Deal described how almost 70% of people in the state criminal justice system had dropped out of school, and that they partnered with schools to help get those people back on the right track.
"It would be much easier not to have to go back and re-do what should have been done earlier in their lives," he said.
"It may be, and I think it will be true, that there may be children who will come here with parents who are seeking the assistance of the state and hopefully they will see a book, they will become interested in a book and they will continue on a path of wanting to read even more. And if that's true, the trajectory of those children's lives..." Deal paused to collect himself as he became emotional. "...will change. And that's what we all want."
Only 11% of foster youth graduate from high school each year, according to 2018 numbers from Georgia DFCS, compared to half of foster youth graduating nationwide. DFCS wants to improve that percentage.
But, they wanted the children that visited the office to have access to reading material, as education and literacy is a key component in the Georgia State of Hope plan.
The State of Hope is a collaborative effort between public and private organizations that focuses on success for every child in Georgia. The first Opportunity for HOPE is education, followed by trauma-informed, quality caregiving and economic self-sufficiency. More information about the efforts can be found on the Georgia DFCS website.
The Georgia Division of Family and Children’s Services is part of the Georgia Department of Health and provides a variety of social services.
