Agenda

Return

C. 54

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	Melinda Cervantes, County Librarian
Date:	May 23, 2017

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

Grant to the Library of $1,000 from the Richmond Community Foundation

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 05/23/2017

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:

W. Beveridge 925-608-7730

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: May 23, 2017
David Twa,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the County Librarian, or designee, to apply for and accept a grant in the amount of $1,000 from the Richmond Community Foundation to provide bilingual Spanish storytime, musical performance and books for participants in a summer reading celebration to be held at the El Sobrante Library, for the period July 1 through July 31, 2017.

FISCAL IMPACT:

No Library Fund match.

BACKGROUND:

Receipt of this grant will benefit the children of the community by increasing the participation in the library’s Summer Reading Program. Participation in the program will help to foster a love of reading in children, engage families and share strategies for reading together at home and give every child their own book to keep.

BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)

The Richmond Community Foundation is offering grants for Summer Family Reading Celebrations, which support the West Contra Costa Literacy Coalition’s comprehensive plan to ensure that all children will read at grade level by the end of the 3^rd grade. These grants target parents and their children between the ages of 0-8 that reside in Richmond, North Richmond, San Pablo and the surrounding communities in West Contra Costa County.

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

There will not be a Summer Reading Celebration at the El Sobrante Library.

CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT:

This program meets Children’s Impact Statements: Children Ready for and Succeeding in School, Children and Youth Healthy and Preparing for Productive Adulthood; and Communities that are Safe and Provide a High Quality of Life for Children and Families.

As part of the library’s strategic plan, the library champions personal and community engagement in literacy and reading to enrich lives. The Library works to position and market each library as the community’s early literacy center, and to prioritize and develop programming to attract and retain new readers.

The El Sobrante Library has a strong commitment to promoting literacy to children and families through story times, Summer Reading programs, and an attractive materials collection to foster a love of books and reading in children. Offering new books and an exciting Summer Reading family event will increase participation from those who would otherwise go without many incentives to keep up their reading skills during summer break. Summer learning loss among lower income students is a major contributor to the achievement gap. Offering additional incentives like the new books and a fun and exciting event will help bring families to the library to sign up for summer reading and learn about the importance of reading and reading to their children, thus helping to close the achievement gap.

By reaching out to the children of El Sobrante, many who are from low income families, and offering incentives to reading and fun events that bring them to the library, the library can help children to read more during the summer. Also, staff can educate parents of children coming to the library in the importance of reading and reading to their children, thus, helping to close the achievement gap, and helping the children of El Sobrante have more success in school.