WHO CAN HELP?

We are an all-volunteer group, organized and run by people from all different systems of belief and walks of life. Some of us support prisoners as an expression of religious testimony. Some of us have incarcerated loved ones, or were formerly incarcerated. Some of us simply want to take practical steps to end the cycle of incarceration, failure, and re-incarceration. No matter your reason for wanting to get involved, if you share our belief that education is a human right and want to extend that right to people in prison we would love to work with you!

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

There are many different ways to assist in our mission.

FUNDING
By donating just a few dollars, you can help pay for postage costs which allow us to continue to provide books and other print media to the incarcerated people we serve, free of charge.

DONATING
We primarily rely on donations of books, magazines, scientific journals, and other print media in order to maintain a well-stocked library from which we can select materials to send to the inmates who contact us with requests. We accept textbooks, novels, scientific journals, nonfiction books, religious texts, magazines, educational materials, art books, poetry and essay collections, and many other reading materials. Unfortunately, we cannot use any books that are spiral bound.

If you have books you would like to donate, please drop them off at the Community Center door at First Trinity Lutheran Church
643 W. 31st Street
Chicago, Illinois
60608

Please note: we do not send or accept materials which advocate hatred towards people on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation.

We also accept donations of US postage stamps. If you have stamps you would like to donate, please send them to our P.O. Box

Midwest Books to Prisoners
1321 N. Milwaukee Ave
PMB #460
Chicago, Illinois
60622

VOLUNTEERING
One of the biggest ways you can help us is by volunteering your time!
We meet at 12PM every Saturday at the Community Center of First Trinity Lutheran Church (643 W 31st Street) to read letters and pack up reading materials. We would love to see you there!
Check out our Facebook page for updates.

With so many prisons on lockdown due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis, our work is more important than ever and we are still meeting weekly. We ask that all volunteers wear masks or other appropriate face coverings over their mouth and nose and maintain social distance of at least six feet.