On November 10th the members of Vancouver’s Spectrum Next Chapter Book Club will be holding a Read-a-Thon hosted at Joe’s Table Cafe from 12 – 6 p.m. – this will be one of the many Read-a-Thons happening around the world to fund participants to come together in Chicago to talk about their work. Joe’s Table Cafe is 5021 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC and we’ll be there from noon – 6 p.m. While people are reading, Aaron Johannes and Liz Etmanski will be drawing pictures about reading in their own supportive draw-a-thon for the cause.
The Next Chapter Book Club (NCBC) is an innovative reading program for people with developmental disabilities (DD). Founded in 2002, in Columbus, Ohio, NCBC has grown to over 250 book clubs in over 100 cities located in 29 states, four Canadian provinces, three European countries and Israel. NCBC is the largest community-based literacy program for adults with DD in the world, serving over 1,500 people weekly.
Each book club meets for an hour in a community setting such as a bookstore, coffee shop, or café to read aloud and discuss a book of their choosing. NCBC members read adapted classics as well as current fiction. Two trained volunteers facilitate each book club, keeping members with a wide range of abilities engaged in the group activity.
With your donation, Next Chapter Book Club members and volunteers from Vancouver will be able to travel to Chicago, IL to participate in the second international conference on literacy for adults with developmental disabilities, The Next Chapter Book Club and Beyond in April, 2015. At this conference, our book club members and volunteers will connect with many others from across the globe to exchange ideas and strategies that will enhance their book clubs.
You can download and print out a Pledge Form (2014 Read-A-Thon) to collect pledges or you can make an online donation here – let us know it is for the Spectrum Next Chapter Book Club.
For more information about the Next Chapter Book Club conference in April, check out this link.