WHY WE NEED POP UP LENDING LIBRARIES IN COATESVILLE

Children in Family Storytime Yoga decorating baskets for pop up lending libraries in Coatesville

FACTS:

• The prison system looks at third grade reading scores to estimate how many more prisons will be needed in the future.

• The 2013-14 school year reading scores for CASD show that 34% reading below third grade level

53% of Coatesville's school district is economically disadvantaged

49% white

15% Hispanic

32% African American

• 2013-14 school year Caln Elementary – 42 % reading below 3rd grade level

59% of Caln families are economically disadvantaged

30% African American

42% white

22% Hispanic

• 2013-14 school year for Scott Middle school - 44% reading below grade level 6, 7, & 8th grade

48% of Scott students writing below grade level 6, 7, & 8th grade

62% of Scott Middle School Families are economically disadvantaged

38% African American

22% Hispanic

37% White

• 40% of the youth at the Chester County Youth Center are from Coatesville. CCYC supports court adjudicated youth with a shelter for homeless and abused girls, runs a program for boys in the Evening Report Center, and houses both girls and boys ages 10-18 in a Detention facility. This number supports the statistics above.

• There's a gap in the number of words that children in affluent neighborhoods hear by the time they are 5-years-old in comparison to the number of words that children of the same age in economically disadvantaged families are exposed to. Estimates place this number close to 30,000. 0-5 years of age is when the brain is most malleable. It's clear that the children in CASD are entering school with an academic disadvantage which increases each year.

• Children in kindergarten are being suspended for social and behavior issues. They are arriving at school unavailable to learn due to exposure to chronic generational poverty and, in many families, generational incarceration.

• We cannot depend upon the school system to bring about a change by itself. It is going to take the community working together as a “village.” Putting free lending libraries in every barbershop and laundry mat, in churches and at soup kitchens, in parks and wherever little children gather will help to bridge the literacy gap in Coatesville. More importantly, this will foster a sense of community. We need to pull together to read and bond with the little children. Doing so will encourage children to read, create, and grow.