Durham Book Club (DBC) was created and is led by StrongHER TogetHER, a Durham NC-based non-profit. DBC offers middle grade students of all genders an opportunity to (1) read collectively, (2) converse with authors, (3) sharpen writing skills, (4) participate in a book-themed podcast and more.
The program is divided into four parts - DBCreads, DBCwrites, DBCtalks and DBCexplores (future). DBC is student-led in that a Student Leadership Team (SLT) makes books selections, coordinates author visits, manages social and internet messaging and makes many decisions that guide the evolution of the program.
As we enter our fifth year, we have seen DBC grow exponentially. This past year, over 400 students participated in the program in some capacity. As we enter the next phase of DBC, we are working to assemble a team of 5-6 volunteers who would be excited to divide tasks among themselves (based on interests and availability) and assist as follows:
- Work alongside the SLT, which meets every 2-3 weeks for 1-1.5 hours on a weekend, sometimes in person and sometimes via zoom*
- Organize and Lead a summer publishing camp
- Communications with Reading Advocates (ie librarians) and DBC mailing list
- Manage social media
- Manage website updates
- Grant writing
- Gather stats for grants and impact reporting
- Further develop advocacy / community relationships, ie Diverse Books for All, we are and Book Harvest
- Event coordination, ie DBCreads author visits, DBCwrites author workshops
* These are tasks that the Student Leadership Team manages or is a part of, with reminders:
- DBCtalks - Podcast development
- DBCreads - choose the books, organize book discussions at libraries, come up with activities
- Assistance with event Planning & Coordination
- Marketing (something the SLT wants to do more of)
All of the books for DBCreads are provided to students in grades 5-8 for free. The writing workshops are also provided at no costs. To date, we have been able to fund these things via grants, but in the last two years, we have seen something of a drop in grant funding. For that reason, we are also excited about ways that this program can generate revenue, ie expansion of the DBC Publishing summer camp and a paid offering called DBCexplores.
As we look for a team of volunteers who would be excited to be a part of this team, the collective skills that would be most useful are:
- A love of reading and writing
- Connection with middle grade students
- Writing skills (basic email communications, grants, impact reporting)
- Marketing skills (ie canva)
- Community Networking / PR skills
- Event planning
- Entrepreneurial spirit (to help us in developing revenue generation opportunities, etc)
Note that only team members with youth interface opportunities will require a background check, ie if you would be excited to be a part of this team as a grant writer or marketing/impact reporting volunteer, you would not require a background check. Volunteers that assist the student leadership team would.
To learn more about DBC, please visit durhambookclub.org or IG @durhambookclub. Thanks so much for considering whether the DBC Team is right for you! (stronghertogether.org / IG @stronghertogether)
