The Maryland Book Bank Inc

Our main goal is to ensure that no child in Baltimore is without age-appropriate books. To meet this goal we will pursue the following course :

1.Increase the number of books distributed in the next year to 500,000.


2. Home Library Program -Expand the HLP to a city-wide program to ensure all children have access to age-appropriate books at home.

3. Increase the scope of the Bookmobile Program- Bring books right into the "literacy deserts" to ensure access to books for children regardless of where they live. This also provides an important component of choice for the children.

We have established relationships with some of the largest booksellers in the world, and they have agreed to provide us with free children's books, pre K to 4th grade level . Each shipment is an average of 70,000 books per truckload. Seven truckloads of books per year plus what is already coming in through the book bank each month will provide the number of books needed to provide more than 10,000 children the equivalent number of books at home as their middle income counterparts.

Now that space needs are met we will enlist the help of Interns to bring in capable people to run the programs and organize volunteers needed to sort, level and pack the books. We will then have boxed books at each grade level palletized and ready for distribution to the community through various community partners.

Programs such as Reading Partners, WIC, DSS, Reach Out and Read have agreed to a fee based program whereby MBB will supply leveled, boxed books to their programs for .45 cents per book. This keeps us competitive with other suppliers while helping us increase distribution to the children most in need, thus getting us closer to our goal of 200,000 books distributed as well as improving organizational sustainability.

We will continue to grow our Home Library Program through relationships with Baltimore City Schools and the Literacy Blueprint program. Presently there are 5000 children and 27 schools participating in this program. We would like to double this number over the next 2 years.

Bookmobile-. The bookmobile will be the primary delivery system for the HLP which allows the children to choose their books.

Membership program- We have instituted a membership program for visitors which will allow better tracking of distribution and will increase our revenue stream. The member will only have to enter an accurate count of the books taken at each visit.
Memberships are available to individuals for a fee of $45.00 per year and organizations for $100.00 per year..

The combination of all of these programs have provided a balanced, sustainable model.

Internal- The structure and simplicity of the program is such that we are able to fluctuate with growth and contraction easily.

The Board of Directors is comprised of people with skills and experience that provide a strong foundation for stable leadership and decision making in all aspects of business and educational programming.

The executive position provides a clear vision and has a business background with a proven ability to forge partnerships that benefit the organizations efforts and an ability to grow the organization at a manageable pace with prudent budgeting, logistical and financial management.

A strong internship program has provided additional staff support as the program has grown.

Our greatest need is an increase in organizational capacity in the areas of development as well as daily operations. We will begin to seek funding to allocate for a development position immediately.
Facilities-
We are now in a 9,500 sq ft facility which has allowed for growth and substantial increase in our capacity.
We are able to sell the books for adults through our social enterprise and workforce development program. This program allows the Maryland Book Bank to be a self-sustaining operation.

External Resources-
The Grade Level Reading Coalition has provided avenues of communication with all of the city literacy organizations, educational programs ,funders and government agencies. We have relationships with the Baltimore Ravens and Under Armour which will provide support and guidance, and our relationships with WIC, DSS, Reading Partners and others many other organizations has grown into a revenue generating and resource support system for MBB.

As our capacity grows we will continue to seek out new partners for our book supply program through the communication avenues available to us.
We have a seat on the Weinberg Library Project Advisory committee which puts us in constant contact with some of the primary stakeholders in the Baltimore educational community and has proven to be incredibly supportive of our efforts.

Our relationship with the Mayor's Office of Employment Development has provided us with a steady workforce of people in need of training in warehouse and inventory management. We are able to add staff with relative ease if need be. We have also worked with Baltimore Collegetown Network to develop an internship program that has proven to be very effective.

We have:
- Set up and implemented the membership program.
- Begun receiving large donations of books from suppliers and begun sorting and processing in the present facility as best as possible.
- Begun delivering books to participating programs such as DSS, Reading Partners etc.
-Obtained funding and conducted yearly external audits.
-Brought on interns to help with operations and implementation of membership program and Bookmobile program.
-We have established relationships with City Schools and the Mayors office which will provide support and channels for increased distribution and funding.
Next:
Formalize our relationship with City Schools with an MOU for the Home Library Program.
Grow the HLP with City schools to serve 5,000 children in the coming school year.
Improve logistical processes to better streamline the HLP.
Integrate second Bookmobile into process flow.