Reading Opens Minds brings the book club experience to low-income and incarcerated adults, and at-risk youth.

We provide free new books and a group discussion facilitator, as well as snacks, journals and other program support materials.

Our mission is multi-pronged:

To provide quality, thought-provoking texts by many different contemporary authors

To help increase reading comprehension for all reading levels

To promote self-expression

To create a sense of community, empathy and belonging.

"Reading a book carves brand-new neural pathways into the ancient cortical bedrock of our brains. It transforms the way we see the world—makes us, as Nicholas Carr puts it in his recent essay, 'The Dreams of Readers,' 'more alert to the inner lives of others.' We become vampires without being bitten—in other words, more empathic. Books make us see in a way that casual immersion in the Internet, and the quicksilver virtual world it offers, doesn't."

- Andrew Sullivan @ thedailybeast.com

If you would like to give in HONOR of someone you love, we will send them a card letting them know of your gift!

Reading Opens Minds is a project under the Pasadena Arts Council's EMERGE fiscal sponsorship program.