AEP donates to local library

STEUBENVILLE - A $6,000 donation from AEP Ohio to the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County will pay for the Power Up for School Success program.

The program is part of the library's Family Place Library designation, obtained in 2000. Family Place libraries are a network of libraries nationwide that believe literacy begins at birth and libraries help build healthy communities by nourishing healthy families.

Power Up for School Success will help participants learn the six early literacy skills children need before they can read. Children who enter kindergarten with those skills learn to read more easily. Library officials said the Power Up for School Success project will incorporate the latest research about brain development and how children learn and skills measured in literacy assessments for kindergarteners, as well as ways to improve those skills.

"The Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County has made early literacy one of our top priorities," said Misty Teasdale, Family Place coordinator for the library system. "In the past 10 years, we have literally given away thousands of books to children in Jefferson County. However, the current budget crisis all Ohio libraries are facing has made it difficult to continue those practices. Luckily, early literacy also is a priority of AEP Ohio."

Family Place libraries redesign the environment to be more welcoming and appropriate for children, from birth onward, as well as work to connect parents with the resources, programs and services offered at the library and other family service agencies, as well as reaching out to non-traditional library users.

(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)