{"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\/cds-volunteers-support-kerrville\/\">CDS volunteers support \u2018Faith and Fellowship\u2019 memorial event in Kerrville<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/pastors-ordained-in-south-sudan\/\">Pastors ordained for Church of the Brethren ministry in South Sudan<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/speakers-for-nyc-2026\/\">The speakers for National Youth Conference 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/brethren-and-the-declaration\/\">Brethren and the Declaration of Independence: Denise Kettering-Lane presents an equipping session<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/god-of-grace-and-god-of-glory\/\">\u2018God of grace and God of glory\u2019: A call to worship<\/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}]}}