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DIBS for Kids launches in Omaha

DIBS stands for Delivering Infinite Bookshelves.  The program encourages kids to read a book every night for fun while they’re out of school.

David Orrick, Founder and Executive Director of DIBS for Kids, says reading helps keep children’s reading skills fresh over the summer. 

He says the DIBS program offers book checkouts through a technology they built that allows teachers to send books home with kids where the students take on the check-in and check-out process. 

Orrick explains that makes it easier to operate because teachers don’t have to oversee the program as much as they would if they created a take home book program on their own. 

He says DIBS for Kids, a non-profit, is now launching in Omaha.

"We are attempting to help the community address the fact that 60% of students growing up in poverty nationally don’t have age-appropriate books in their home.  We do so through a take home book program that we are currently piloting in three Omaha schools, high poverty elementary schools and we will be expanding to two more in the fall.”

Orrick says this summer AmeriCorps VISTA members will be assisting with the DIBS program. 

He says VISTA members will design program improvements, help document the work DIBS is doing and assist with writing grants for future growth.

More information is available at DIBSforKids.org.