Little Libraries raise reading awareness in Sacramento community

Volunteers putting together a library with available materials. Photo by Macy Membrere, EBC Sacramento Bureau.

(Eagle News) — Tom Bennett, Senior Vice President of Community Impact, and the Literacy Program Coordinators from United Way, Sacramento contemplated on the following: “How do we get books into communities that don’t have it?” With this single thought, Little Libraries were brought to life in the state capital of California. The concept of the Little Library was a sustainable and easy model, where you take a free book to read and when you are finished reading it, you can return it to the Little Library. Others participate by adding new books to the Little Library to share with others.

Tom Bennett, Senior Vice President of Community Impact, describing how little libraries function. Photo by Macy Membrere, EBC Sacramento Bureau.

Little Libraries is the next step in the literacy program for United Way because it raises reading awareness and builds literacy. The overall aim of United Way is to provide programs that improve lives by promoting the common good. In order to do this, access to resources and community coordination are vital.

United Way of Sacramento was successful in previous projects which involved reaching out to surrounding communities through school murals, paint projects at school playgrounds and classrooms, and community gardens, but this was a first for a project like Little Libraries.

A variety of school districts benefit from this project, such as the Robla School District, where books are not readily available to purchase or borrow in the community. United Way has been working with the school principal of Robla Elementary School for a year and through this project, a Little Library was put in the front of the school so that students would now have more opportunities to take books home with them.

Volunteers putting on the finishing touches for a completed library. Photo by Macy Membrere, EBC Sacramento Bureau.
Volunteers painting a completed library. Photo by Macy Membrere, EBC Sacramento Bureau.

(Eagle News Service, Macy Membrere & Maylynn Tran, EBC Sacramento Bureau)