Out of the Desert

Kimberly Young, Brown County LibraryMatt Mulder, Demco

In 2014, visits to Brown County libraries outpaced Packer game

attendance by 300,000!

Objective 1: 90% of Brown County children will be ready for kindergarten (currently 80%)Objective 2: 33% of all Green Bay third grade students will read at or above grade level (currently 27%)

23 million Americans live in Food Deserts

Characteristics of a Literacy Desert•Neighborhoods with high poverty•Neighborhoods with a high population of young children•Neighborhoods served by underperforming schools

% of Proficient Students Who Do Not Graduate from High School

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

4%11%

19%

% of Non-proficient Students Who Do Not Graduate from High School

All Stu

dent

s

Poor S

tude

nts

Poor a

nd liv

ing

in a

hig

h-po

verty

nei

ghbo

rhoo

d0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%

4%

11%

19%16%

26%

35%

“Urging young people to read more when there is little available to read makes as much sense as urging starving people to eat when no food is available.”

-Stephen Krashen

Now That We Know

•Staff Education•Planning•Development of Ideas

Addressing Literacy Deserts• Strong youth programming

• Using book bikes to get out into the community

• Providing training opportunities to Youth Services staff• Encouraging staff to participate in state and national opportunities

• Reaching out for partnerships with local organizations• Becoming the go-to partner for all agencies that work with children

in poverty, including the Back-to-School Store• Creating Early Literacy Kits through IMLS grant funds• Community Partnership for Children partnership for grant funding

and development of a Big Play Date event

Next Steps

• Develop all-staff training on the importance of the efforts of our Youth Services Department, including talking points

• Provide programming participation and development experiences in Youth Services for all staff

• Create learning opportunities for outside agencies to learn about what the library can do for or in partnership with them

If we had only known…

• Planning in Pueblo, CO• Knowing what parks to target for Books in the Park

programming• Building new libraries

• Outreach and program planning in Columbia, SC• Busing community members to events• Targeting services and offerings to specific neighborhood

libraries

Thank you!

Questions?