The Northeast Regional Library (NERL), headquartered in Corinth, Mississippi was awarded the 2021 Jane Smith Literacy Award by the Mississippi Library Commission and the Mississippi Center for the Book for their Suggested Family Activities (SFA) project. The Jane Smith Literacy Award recognizes innovative and nontraditional literacy programs being used in public libraries across the state of Mississippi.
Pictured: Director Dee Hare
NERL’s SFA program offers suggestions for a variety of activities from arts and crafts, games, outdoor activities, STEM experiments, community engagement, and cooking, and more. The short activity write-ups are posted three times a week on Northeast Regional’s website, as well as printed out to distribute to patrons without internet access.
The focus of the program is to offer ways for families to build early literacy skills in young children and support positive family relationships. Care is taken to ensure that activities do not need special supplies or equipment beyond common materials found in the home. NERL began the SFA program as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such the suggested activities are social-distance friendly.
Additionally, the Northeast Regional Library (NERL) was also awarded a Library of Congress State Literacy Award for the SFA project.
Submitted by:
Dee Hare
Director
Northeast Regional Library