Decatur, GA  — Harmel Codi, a children’s book author and community advocate, is launching a community book drive to benefit children who are being homeschooled during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from Community Alliances and Improvements.

In collaboration with DeKalb Schools Regions 5, 6, and 7, the books will support parents in our communities with additional reading resources for their homeschooled children, despite the strictures imposed by the pandemic. The book drive brings together a number of different organizations, including Community Alliances and Improvements, which Codi leads.

“This cannot be a lost year of learning for our kids,” Codi explained. “The book drive presents an opportunity for people to come together and support parents who might be struggling to balance homeschooling their children while working full-time. This is not easy, as everyone can imagine. But now, we can take practical steps to help out. The book drive will provide reading materials that continue to instill a passion for reading.” The book drive will feature Codi’s recently announced series of children’s books, which includes titles like “Mommy Teach Me How to Count” and “Daddy Teach Me How to Ride My Bike.”

The goal of Community Alliances and Improvements is to promote the importance of early literacy by donating books and others to young parents and local schools.  This program will enable children to hold their own and develop great candidates for college, graduate schools, and competitive careers. The organization, with Codi at the helm, is striving to make literacy a pillar of advocacy, a process that cannot stop just because of the pandemic. Indeed, as Codi warned, “Early education and literacy can be areas of serious disparity for children of color and can lead to serious consequences, even death.”

As Codi has found in her career as a former juvenile court guardian ad litem and a volunteer juvenile representative, early reading problems can translate into major life trouble as kids with poor reading skills grow up to be adults with limited ability to function in society. “It’s time to stop this vicious negative cycle, where prisons are better funded than schools,” she added. “It takes early intervention along with reading and engaging with our children. They’re home anyway!”

Books can be dropped off at:

Exchange Park Recreation Center – 2271 Columbia Dr – Decatur, GA. M-F from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Mason Mill Recreation Center – 1340 McConnell Dr – Decatur, GA. M-F from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Or Mailed to Community Alliances & Improvements – P.O. Box 360716 Decatur, GA 30034

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