When story books are a luxury: how a community organization transformed their county

In rural South Georgia sits Cook County, a place with just over 17,000 people. There’s a lot of action stirring up in Cook County, where 20.5% of households are living in poverty. 

38% of households in Cook County are below the ALICE threshold, meaning they earn more than the Federal Poverty Level, but less than the basic cost of living for the county.  

“Simply put, families are really struggling to pay their bills and buy basic essentials,” said Zoe Myers, Executive Director of Cook County Family Connection. “Items like story books and learning materials become luxuries that they cannot afford. That's where our collaborative and our partners step in to put those materials in the hands of children.” 

Cook County Family Connection is using grant funding to transform the future of their county. They make monthly deliveries providing educational materials, story books, and art supplies to local childcare and early education partners. 

Each of those deliveries is $500 worth of classroom materials and story books. 

They also host or sponsor at least six literacy and art events each year. One of those events was a support group of mothers and grandmothers; Cook County Family Connection sponsored workshops to build capable kids by teaching caregivers how to read to children, how they can find opportunities to read, and how to create stories with the littlest children. 

“Ultimately what creates community transformation is moving toward systemic change and improving environments and policies,” Myers said. “We're doing all the great work of getting people reading, getting children learning, but we're wanting to see those long-term outcomes and results as well.” 

Caption: Zoe Myers with a recent supply delivery to Learning Connection.

Cook County is transforming as a result of their efforts, and children’s lives are changing. In 2018, 68% of children in the county were not attending preschool, which better prepares children for kindergarten (Phillips e t al., 2017).  

Six years spent promoting the importance of early, high-quality education, connecting families to childcare providers, and sharing concepts of early learning have shifted that number to only 24% not attending preschool in 2024. 

“We know that literacy and early education is a top priority in our community,” Myers said. “Our leaders understand the significance of having children in high quality education and we all know that families across our community can't do this all by themselves.” 

Cook County is working together to support children and families in their community. Even the Probation Department became an unlikely ally when they allowed those on probation to purchase story books, school supplies, or literacy materials, in lieu of standard community service. 

Just a few weeks before the publication of this article, the probation department delivered an entire truckload of school supplies, arts and crafts materials, books, crayons, and more. 

“Of course, we repackaged all of that and delivered it to our childcare and early ed partners so everyone could take part in receiving those donations,” Myers said. “That’s the ultimate example of how the systems within our community are changing to help us accomplish our goal for these families.” 

Cook County Family Connection isn’t just focused on literacy. They take a holistic approach to social determinants of health, like socioeconomic status, and offer aid related to opioid crisis prevention, storm preparation, and disaster work. 

After collaborating in the county for 25 years, their network of partners is vast and includes pre-K providers, Head Start, childcare facilities, the public library, community members, their local Christian Academy, and more. 

“We understand that the next generation are going to be the leaders, the business owners, the people who are making the community sustainable and advancing it into the future,” Myers said. “So, we want all of them to have the best opportunity that they can possibly have.” 

Cook County Family Connection is a former recipient of the Deal Center’s Community Coalition Grant. 

The Deal Center is a not-for-profit, special funding initiative created by the Office of the Governor in 2017. The center is intended to improve reading outcomes for Georgia’s children and is housed at Georgia College & State University.