DEARBORN — Books For a Benefit, a non-profit organization led by students from Dearborn, has expanded across Southeast Michigan— collecting and redistributing 40,000 books to promote literacy to students facing academic barriers.

After using social media as a marketing tool to ask people to donate books their children may have outgrown, Books For a Benefit Founder and Co-President Nadine Jawad was shocked by the overflow of donations, but said it’s nothing new to this community.

“All these moms started messaging me, saying they have boxes,” Jawad said. “I think 95 percent of the books have come from this community.”

Jawad added that a lot of libraries also do their fair share, donating books to the organization whenever they’re restocking.

“When we visit schools, we give each student three books to take home,” she said. “And we also leave the school with some books, so that way if the kids find an issue with the books or don’t like them, they can exchange them.”

The 20-year-old Dearborn native and University of Michigan student founded the organization in December 2014. She was initially seeking to join a book club on campus, but the university didn’t have one at the time.

Jawad decided to establish her own, with co-president and classmate Essam Al-Snayyan, at first wanting to use reading as a tool to promote mental health. But shortly after, she started missing the work she’d done as an ACT/SAT tutor in Dearborn for two years. So, she changed her mind.

“I was really missing that part of my life,” she said. “I watched a lot of kids go through school and apply to college, so I wanted to go back to Dearborn and do something.”

Books For a Benefit’s mission became mostly focused on serving communities in Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Detroit by ensuring access to necessary resources, books and tutors.

“We try to make sure to mitigate whatever obstacles or barriers their students are facing,” Jawad said, adding that that doesn’t mean they turn other communities away.

In fact, they donated to students in another country after someone asked to partner with them for the cause. Jawad said the curriculum at Ghana’s public schools is taught in English, but the schools had no books written in English, so Books For a Benefit stepped in.

As for local tutoring, the organization offers it through its university chapters, which partners with a community-based organization that needs tutors on a weekly basis.

For example, the University of Michigan chapter partners with the Community Action Network in Ypsilanti, serving students who are homeless or on the brink of being homeless.

“We send our tutors there after school every single day to help students with their homework, read with them or hold writing workshops,” Jawad said. “That’s one way we tutor, but we also send tutors to houses or schools if there’s a specific niche that needs that.”

Jawad said their work is even more vital because of the refugee crisis; and since most refugee families resettled in Dearborn Heights, Books For a Benefit works with many of them— providing them with shelves full of books as well as tutoring in schools and homes.

Jawad didn’t expect the impact the organization has had on communities, but it’s in need of a board of directors and she hopes it eventually has its own office space and a central library to better its services once the board is formed.

“That way it’s more organized,” she said. “And when people need help, we can make sure we help because what’s happening now is we have so many people asking. And it’s difficult, because sometimes we don’t have the resources or enough people to help.”

Jawad said those interested in joining the board or in volunteer work are welcome to reach out.

“We have no preference,” she said. “We’re looking for anyone who wants to get involved in education because it ties to all fields and disciplines.”

Email nkjawad@umich.edu for more information.