User:Taylor Emm/sandbox

Rough Draft 1

Open Books West Loop has established a creative writing field trip program for elementary and high school students where they take part in literacy games and activities. Following the field trip, the participants are encouraged to use their experience to write their own work of creative literacy. After the workshop, all student participants receive printed copies of the class's completed work. Read Then Write is a literacy composition and publishing program for young authors. During this program, students read through a text with a volunteer writing coach before going on to write their own creative writing works, which are published in an annual Open Books anthology.

Lead- name, what, where

(Laura)

Open Books is a nonprofit organization that provides the ability to get to know literature better. OpenBooks West Loop have a creative writing field trip program for elementary and high school students students where they take part in literacy games and activities, before going on to write their own work of creative literacy. After the workshop, all students receive printed copies of the classes works to keep. Read Then Write is a literacy composition and publishing program for young authors. During this program, students read through a text with a volunteer writing coach before going on to write their own creative writing works, which are published in an annual Open Books anthology. OpenBooks Publishing academy is a reading, creative writing, book access & distribution program that allows young authors to create, write and professionally publish a full length novel. With the assistance of OpenBooks staff, writing coaches, and published authors students consult industry professionals about design and publication of their books. After the program all finished works are displayed at Open Books' Publishing Academy Book Launch. Through their Book Grant Program, from 2014-2015 OpenBooks donated over 130,000 books to community organizations to help create libraries in schools and non profit centers. Book grants help create classroom lending libraries, children’s book grants and reading resource materials.

Events-Alexa

Open Books organizes field trips, as well as writing and reading workshops with tutors to improve their writings. Those who participate get a chance to share their writing with others and publish their work.(2) In 2014, Open Books participated in Chicago’s first Independent Bookstore Day.(5) In addition, the organization hosts Blood & Ink Writing Duels, which encourages participants to love reading.(4)

History

Open Books was founded by Stacy Ratner, the now Executive Director of the nonprofit educational and social program . Ratner attended Brandeis University and Boston College Law School to attain degrees in literature and law and has received her Certificate in Nonprofit Management fro Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management . The Open Books operation began in Ratner’s basement, where she and Becca Keaty, current acting  Director of Marketing of Public Relations of Open Books, collected and organized donated books . Ratner and Keaty partnered with Erin Walter, acting Literacy Director of Open Books, to first open in May of 2006.

Motivated by research that depicted that over 53% of Chicago adult residents are lacking or have deficient literacy skills; Ratner, Keaty, and Walter, and additional volunteers inspired by the trio, dedicated themselves to promoting literacy and the power of books within the city of Chicago. Nell Klugman, volunteer coordinator for Open Books, recounted the motivation for the creation Open Books stemmed from Chicago’s continuing history of insufficient literacy skills in both adults and public school students. Many of Open Books actions center around creating access to books, the ability to purchase books, prioritizing time for reading.

Annotated Bibliography

Open Books is a store that sells second-hand books. The best part about the shop is that all the earnings go to the youth literacy fund. The organization values books and promote the love for literacy.

The warehouse is located in Pilsen on 19th and Peoria street. The nonprofit leads programs to help students with their literacy skills and promote love for books. Besides donate the profits to the students literacy fund, the Open Books also gives away some books. Besides that, the organization has an online business. Additionally, the Open Books supports Book Worm Angels organization, which donates books to students and homeless shelters. The Pilsen warehouse hosts events to get more donations. Moreover, the Open Books provides one-on-one reading classes for elementary students. Besides that, they organize Adventure in Creative Writing field trips. During trips students, can work with coaches, share their work with classmates and publish it after. Book director Aaron Lippelt says that their plan is to expand the program. The organization is always open for new ideas and programs to support children. The best thing is that the Open Books is loaded with volunteers who help a lot.

In December of 2014, Open books donated almost 500 kid's books for the CTA Holiday Train. The Holiday Train was located in Rogers Park at the Howard stops, including Yellow, Red and Purple lines.

Open Books provides scholarships, school trips and workshops for thousands of students. The organization owns two stores, one in Pilsen and one in River North. The main goal of the Open Books is to make a positive impact in Chicago by creating opportunities for people to access and get to know literature. The plans of the organization are to open more stores and host more events. However, the Open Books is already hosting some important events. One of them is Ink & Blood Writing Duels which purpose is to promote the love for reading and writing.

The organization participated in the first Independent Bookstore Day of the City of Chicago. During the event, participants were able to meet some authors, get autographs, taste some food and buy books with a big discount. Also, the first visitors got a bag of books for free.

Open books is a new and used bookstore stocked with multicolored books and it is a cozy spot in the Chicagoland area.

Open Books is a Kid-friendly bookstore that adults will also enjoy. The profits from each purchase go to funding literacy and other book charities in Chicago. Their goal is to provide literacy programs in the community. Volunteers maintain the two stores located in the west loop and Pilsen.

Open Books will open a store in the Chicago Literacy Alliance building in the West Loop. It will be their second location since opening in River North back in 2009. The location will provided offices and spaces for meetings and events. The Chicago Literacy Alliance represents over 90 non profit literacy organizations.

The nonprofit organization, which was started in 2006, owns a donations blocks from UIC’s east campus. The donated books help the organization fight illiteracy in Chicago for students in grades 1-12. The organization is run by volunteers who both help in the store and work with children. In Chicago, the average school student has a lower grade reading level, and a percentage of Chicago adults have basic literacy skills if not low literacy skills. Their goal is to make sure kids can read and write. Open Books accepts any type of book, even used textbooks, but they are in most demand for children’s books. Open Books has a Book Grant Program, which offers reading source materials.

Open Books goal is to fight illiteracy in Chicago and to make sure that low income households have books to read.. At their stores, they have over 50,000 books for sale, one fifth of which are children's books. Open Books store co-sponsors many public events. The donations of books are not just resold, they are given to book organizations that apply for their book grant on the website.

Micah McCrary depicts the initial need for and the functions provided by the creation of the Open Books non profit literacy program. The article,”The Good Word: Chicago’s Open Books arrive with a mission” identifies Erin Walter, Becca Keaty, and Stacy Ratner as influential figures directly involved with Open Books origin, and provides quotations from sed sources. McCrary also mentions the four literary branches that make up the entire program: Open Books Buddies, Adventures in Creative Writing, VWrite, and We Write.

‘Open Books marks 10 years of helping Chicago’s underprivileged schools’ is written by Talia Wright, as she writes about Open Books public book swap and recognizes the program’s engagement in communities after 10 years. The book swap is open to all genres and ages of readers and was held at Chicago Reader, in Old Town. The swap provides the program with a variety of books to donate as well as proceeds that are used to further support their literacy programs and branches.

This source provides several, detailed illustrations and specific percentages that show Open Book’s productivity, profits and expenses, donations and expenses, and more. The article consists of graphs, charts, and percentages.

This article is a transcripted interview hosted by NBC News with Stacy Ratner and two children involved in the program. The article provides the alternate perspective of the children Open Books works to help and cooperate with.

This article is about the ‘Make Your Mark’ campaign’s collaboration with Open Books to combat literacy in the city of Chicago. The name ‘Make Your Mark’ is derived from a song created by MashPlant.com, a website for young adults to contribute and become involved with their communities.

ProPublica, M. T. (2013, May 09). Nonprofit Explorer: Open Books Ltd. Retrieved March 08, 2018 Annotation: Nonprofit Explorer summarizes Open Book Ltd. tax returns and Form 990 documents from 2007-2017. The summary contains data processed by the IRS from 2012-2016 (2011-2015 fiscal years).

Open Books, LTD. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2018 Guidestar provides a platform for Open Books Ltd. and other organizations to share information about essential board leadership practices. This includes the summary and mission statement of the organization, program information, financial information, and operations information.

Cunniffe, E. (2015, June 15). Chicago Nonprofits Open Coworking Space to Advance Literacy, Avoid Redundancies. Retrieved March 08, 2018 This article discusses Open Books Ltd's collaborations with other non profits in a co-work place in hopes to advance literacy. Operator Stacy Ratner explains Open Books is about quality over quantity, and that their goal isn't simply "Incubating and accelerating onwards" at full speed as a business.

19. HooplaHa-Only Good News (Producer). (2017, May 10). Non-Profit "Open Books" Promotes Literacy to Chicago Youth [Video file]. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from

Annotation: This video covers Open Books’ social venture as a bookstore. It discusses Open Books community programs, and how their volunteers promote literacy in the Chicago area.

"OPEN BOOKS ORGANIZATION WORKS TO TURN PAGE ON ILLITERACY IN CHICAGO"