{"id":17996,"date":"2021-12-17T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=17996"},"modified":"2021-12-18T17:23:52","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T17:23:52","slug":"reading-in-the-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2021\/reading-in-the-neighborhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading in the neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Jennie Waering<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Central Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, Va. (Virlina District), formed a Race Education Team in 2019. Through racial justice studies led by the team, Central\u2019s congregation learned about disparities in educational achievements, particularly the ability to read well, in low-income schools with large Black and Hispanic populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through generous support, Central gave 640 students in 2 inner-city neighborhood elementary schools (Lincoln Terrace and Hurt Park) 4 books each as a holiday present&#8211;that\u2019s 2,560 books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From Dec. 8 to 14, Central\u2019s congregation and friends read books to the 43 classes in the 2 schools and presented the students in Pre-K to 5th grade their books, along with decorated gift bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The congregation was involved both in decorating the gift bags and in reading to the students. During the reading sessions, Central\u2019s readers emphasized the importance of reading and told the students that if they could read well, they could do anything and have any career they wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many students were delighted that the books were theirs to keep forever. Those who read to the students loved the ability to interact with the students and the students loved the readers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8212; Jennie Waering is a member of the Race Education<\/em> <em>Team at Central Church of the Brethren.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-4-500px.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-4-500px.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-4-500px-300x279.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"317\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-3-300px.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17997\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-3-300px.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-3-300px-284x300.jpg 284w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"248\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-6-500px.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17998\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-6-500px.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-6-500px-300x149.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"257\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-7-500px.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17999\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-7-500px.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/CentralRoanokeBookProject-7-500px-300x154.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011\u2011<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/standing-with-haitian-church-family\/\">Standing with our Haitian church family: A pastoral message from the General Secretary<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/ddr-encourages-generous-support\/\">Deportation Defense Response Team encourages generous support for Haitian church members<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/wcc-season-of-creation\/\">World Council of Churches invites churches worldwide to celebrate the Season of Creation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/brethren-bits-114\/\">Brethren bits<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/svmc-seeks-weird-wonderful-stories\/\">Susquehanna Valley Ministry Center seeks \u2018Weird and Wonderful Stories\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Central Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, Va. (Virlina District), formed a Race Education Team in 2019. Through racial justice studies led by the team, Central\u2019s congregation learned about disparities in educational achievements, particularly the ability to read well, in low-income schools with large Black and Hispanic populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[305,1758,3,1781,1786,1135,2286,2288],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-17996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-central-church-of-the-brethren","tag-children","tag-church-of-the-brethren","tag-education","tag-healing-racism","tag-intercultural-ministries","tag-jesus-in-the-neighborhood","tag-reading"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18001,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17996\/revisions\/18001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17996"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}