REPORT TO DONORS | 2018 This is your Library. Where your journey begins. he Seattle Public Library has always been the people’s source for books, educational empowerment, and community fellowship. With your help as donors to The Seattle Public Library Foundation, the Library has tuned in to the community so that patrons can Tdrive what they want to see in a Library. What do you want from a Library? Is it a job training center? A point of entry for immigrants to engage in their new home, and even become citizens? A free market for the exchange of ideas and learned experiences? Generous gifts to the Foundation have helped make all these possible. With a commitment to equity and a desire to meet the needs of every Seattleite, the Library strives to listen to the public and allow them to shape what services they want to see. In this Report to Donors, you’ll read the stories of Foundation-supported programs that empowered our neighbors to pursue their dreams, with an eye on the greater good. Foundation-funded programs lift up these inspiring leaders, who in turn enrich our community. Together, we’re building a better city for generations to come. And it all springs from your Library. Youth and Family Learning The Foundation supported nine programs in the Youth & Family Learning portfolio with $917,436 in investments. Donor support made the following highlights possible in 2018: • Summer of Learning reached 45,599 youth with more than 8,756 books given away • More than 97,000 children attended a Story Time session • Homework Help welcomed 12,000 student visits at 11 branches • More than 1,700 children participated weekly in Raising A Reader • The Global Reading Challenge engaged 95% of Seattle Public Schools’ fourth- and fifth-graders • Learning Buddies engaged 45 teens to help younger students learn to read better PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT Raising A Reader fosters parent-child bond through books Apple Washington reads to her preschool and daycare students at the Douglass-Truth Branch of The Seattle Public Library. Photo credit: Katrina Shelby, exclusive to SPLF. pple Washington, director of South The program is Raising A Reader, an early She coordinates the book selection with the “What makes me happy is when our former Seattle’s A 4 Apple Day Care, says literacy program that sends children home with curriculum she offers. parents give us shout-outs on Facebook and the literacy program she offers to a rotating selection of books and encourages say, ‘Thank you for holding me accountable for “The kids get excited,” she says. “They run up the 12 kids in her care started with parents to read them with their children. It reading with my child,’” Apple says. to their parents and want to share the books Aher young son. serves children 18 months to 6 years old through with them.” Raising A Reader also brings the program organizations such as daycares, preschools, When he went to preschool, he came home manager into A 4 Apple twice a month for story and non-profit organizations that provide early For their part, the parents love the program, with a little red bag of books from The Seattle time, as well as an end-of-the-year celebration. learning services. Apple has offered Raising Apple says. Not only does it prepare the children Public Library. The programming is free to Apple and her A Reader at A 4 Apple – a certified Seattle for kindergarten, but it engages them in their students, and helps kids go into kindergarten “We were expected to read with the children Preschool Program provider – since 2016. own learning and development. Parents notice ready to read. every day,” Apple says. “My son really got drawn their children using more words and asking Supporting early literacy programs remains a into it.” more questions during their experience with “Birth to 5 years is a crucial time in their primary focus of the Foundation. Raising A Reader. development years,” she says. “They’re storing He also proposed that his mother incorporate Apple lets her kids take home two different so much in their memory and it’s key they don’t the program into her day care’s curriculum – so It also holds parents responsible for reading to books a week, all offered by the Library. miss a major part.” she did. their children, she adds. 2 3 Technology and Access The Foundation supported four Technology & Access programs with $239,562 in investments. Donor support made the following highlights possible in 2018: • 4,014 adults received adult tutoring support during 239 classes • More than 6,700 hours of English instruction were provided • 57 STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math)-related workshops were offered to kids and teens • The Library to Business program provided 270 one-on-one business consulting appointments • 96% of students taking job and life skills classes reported an increase in confidence • 75% of adult English learners improved their listening skills through ESL classes PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT Virtual reality program uses modern technology to bring University of Washington students Stephen Cooper and Cara Pangelinan served as interns at The Seattle Public Library, where they helped create an interactive virtual reality exhibit that connected patrons with the Library’s Special Collections. Seattle’s past to life Photo credit: Katrina Shelby, exclusive to SPLF. ast year, The Seattle Public Library Stephen Cooper is a senior computer about the massive blaze and why it prompted “It was really important for us to convey the expanded its Digital Media Learning engineering major. He said that because of his Seattle to rebuild the city in its wake. history of the entire event, really bring the user programs to include a virtual reality internship working on the Library’s virtual reality to the knowledge of what happened and why it The Library’s goal through its virtual reality program that promotes the Library’s exhibits, he developed skills that would propel was such a big deal,” Stephen says, “and why program is to connect users with The Seattle Lcollections in creative ways and educates people his career. we had to change the city to make sure it never Room and Special Collections, bringing their on local history in the process. happens again.” Both UW students earned the internship historic archives to life in an interactive way. It Cara Pangelinan, a junior at University of through the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority will continue to unveil new exhibits, with one Stephen credits the project with helping him land Washington, applied to work on the virtual Participation grant, which aims to recruit more featuring the historic Duwamish River set to a prestigious summer internship at HBO, working reality project “kind of on a whim.” people of color into STEM (science, technology, debut in the Fall. on the TV network’s streaming services at its engineering, and math) fields. They developed Seattle office. She had no experience with virtual reality, “I learned a lot from the experience that I don’t a virtual reality exhibit hosted by the Central but as a double-major in English and human- think I could have in a traditional classroom “Virtual reality has given me a skillset I can use Library about the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. centered design engineering, she knew it fit in setting,” Cara says. in the future,” he says. “It really helped broaden Users acted as volunteer firefighters to learn to her academic focus of designing products for my horizons and helped me leverage my own Nearly 800 visitors tried out the exhibit for intuitive public use. endeavors.” themselves in February. 4 5 Community Engagement The Foundation supported 12 Community Engagement programs with $813,429 in investments. Donor support made the following highlights possible in 2018: • 11,000 people participated in social justice- and arts-focused public engagement programs • More than 4,000 people attended free Authors Series events, with an average attendee rating of 9 out of 10 • The Bookmobile and mobile services team visited 123 sites every month • 1,543 people participated in events led by the Library’s Native Advisory Council • Seattle Writes welcomed 1,458 aspiring writers to its workshops • More than 300 people attended community outreach programming led by people of color PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT Grassroots activists use Library resources to advance mission FIGHT volunteers Savannah Son, Brandon Wong, Many Uch, Eric You, and JM Wong support both incarcerated and freed Asian-Pacific Islanders with education and immigration cases. | Photo credit: Katrina Shelby, exclusive to SPLF. randon Wong and Many Uch are responding to their ideas on how the Library can “It helped open our eyes to what resources – not Islanders are susceptible to deportation after volunteers who run an advocacy group help them advance their causes. just books – the Library had that we could try prison release and are often forced to perform for currently and formerly incarcerated to use or share with each other,” Brandon said. hard labor and under-the-table work to At Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Asian-Pacific Islanders across the state. “At the same time, the folks at the Library could support themselves. Together – known as FIGHT – they help form B learn the work that we do.” But when they partnered with the Library, educational curriculum for the incarcerated, assist JM Wong, an advocacy volunteer at FIGHT, said they connected with resources that could released people with deportation cases, and Last year, FIGHT hosted three events with the Library’s help solidified its role as a social advance their cause – and the volunteers would bring counseling services to those on the inside. the Library’s help: a discussion on youth service provider committed to equity.