Bringing Literacy To Laundromats With Libraries Without Borders

@BSF_Intl

Bringing Literacy To Laundromats With Libraries Without Borders

Herald Tribune: 1.27.2019 by Kim Doleatto

What do libraries and laundromats have in common?

Like butter and potatoes, not much, but mashed together they’re brilliant.

Libraries Without Borders’ Wash and Learn Initiative does the mashing by bringing colorful spaces with story times, toys and books to laundromats, turning lengthy wait times into opportunities for early learning.

In the time between washing, drying and folding, the Laundry and Literacy spaces invite parents to sing, talk and read with their children, all activities proven to benefit brain growth, vocabulary, comprehension and even behavior.

While the importance of parent engagement is documented, the delivery of such early education programming sometimes misses the mark.

“We see the importance of meeting people where they’re at,” said Adam Echelman, executive director of Libraries Without Borders, a nonprofit focused on breaking barriers between underserved communities and access to information.

“Why create a whole program in a space people don’t recognize and may be inaccessible, when you already have a laundromat where families are waiting,” Echelman said.

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That’s why there’s a Wash and Learn Initiative in Minnesota delivered in Hmong, a Southeast Asian language commonly spoken in that community.

Active in about 30 laundromats in about 10 states across the country, the program is as hyper-local as the laundromat itself.

It relies on local public libraries and librarians to learn about whom they’re not serving and which community needs more support.  READ MORE >>

Inaugural LaundryCares Literacy Summit in Chicago :: March 1-2, 2018

Inaugural LaundryCares Literacy Summit in Chicago: March 1-2, 2018

LaundryCares Foundation: 2.28.2018

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#LaundryLit18

The Laundry Cares Foundation — in partnership with Too Small to Fail and Libraries Without Borders — launches its first-ever Summit to leverage the role of the laundromat in promoting early literacy nationwide.

Coinciding with Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss’ birthday, the Coin Laundry Association’s (CLA) LaundryCares Foundation has launched the inaugural LaundryCares Literacy Summit. This convening in Chicago, IL, held in partnership with Too Small to Fail and Libraries Without Borders, will bring together national literacy organizations to explore the unique role the laundromat can play in enhancing early literacy efforts in local communities across the country.

Since 2006, LaundryCares has been hosting its Free Laundry Day initiative, a nationwide effort to provide families with free laundry services at select laundromats in underserved communities across the country. Hundreds of loads of laundry are typically completed during each free laundry day. Over the last three years, in partnership with the Clinton Foundation’s Too Small to Fail initiative, the Free Laundry Day initiative has expanded to include reading circles and family literacy activities, as well as to provide an opportunity for parents to get information and tools to support their young children’s early brain and language development. Furthermore, CLA and Too Small to Fail have implemented “Wash Time is Talk Time,” a national partnership to distribute children’s books, parent-child conversation posters, and family tip sheets through 5,000 laundromats across the country.

In partnership with Libraries Without Borders, LaundryCares has set up “Wash & Learn” literacy programs in Michigan, New York, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and DC. Through the “Wash & Learn” program, we create pop-up libraries and learning spaces inside laundromats, which bring books, laptops, and curated WiFi networks to families and children at their neighborhood laundromat. The program also convenes local libraries, nonprofits and community organizations, who team up to facilitate educational workshops that align with wash and dry cycles.  READ MORE >>

Laundry, Libraries, and Literacy: Why One Group is Putting Books in Laundromats

Laundry, libraries, and literacy: Why one group is putting books in Laundromats

Michigan Radio: 11.16.2017 by Stateside Staff  LISTEN

Pretend it’s Saturday. 

You and the kids are running errands, including a several-hour stop at the laundromat. They are bored, you are bored.... What if you could use that washer time for something like education? What if your laundromat had the services of a library? 

Well, over the summer, this started happening in Detroit. 

@BSF_Intl

Allister Chang is executive director of an organization called Libraries Without Borders, which is partnering with area laundromats and other organizations to create an innovative program called Wash and Learn. He joined Stateside to discuss the idea.

Chang described the mission of the nonprofit as “to expand access to information.”

“What’s been exciting about this is that we’ve found a space where you’re almost forced to be idle, and, most importantly, we’re reaching a lot of folks who don’t have the resources or might not have the resources for a working washing or drying machine,” Chang said.  LISTEN