Your LA County Library - 86 libraries plus programs beyond library walls - offers you and your community the programs, services, and resources you asked for.

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From Reading Machines and Family Place Centers for learning, play, and reading...to Live Homework Help for students of all ages...to MākMō maker mobiles that bring STEAM programs to you...to four unique Cultural Resource Centers...to serving as an innovative Digital Library with computer loans and extensive Online Learning...to Summer Reading and Literacy programs...to strengthening the workforce with Career Readiness and Counseling, and so much more.

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Your generosity makes an impact. Gifts from individual, foundation, and business partners:

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• Fuel STEAM programming, like the virtual Make at Home series;

• Encourage children, teens, and adults to read (with Spring and Summer Discovery Program);

• Help refurbish libraries;

• Add to print and digital collections;

• Promote cultural understanding;

• Support students to succeed; and

• Strengthen the Foundation and Library by meeting other crucial needs, especially now.

 

Thank you. You are a Library Champion!

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Your gift to the Library Foundation is an investment in your Library, your community and you.

Read about your impact here.

 

Keep reading to find out about Investments with great returns

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PATHWAY to EQUITY - Cultural Resource Centers

The Library has four cultural gems, each housed in a community library – Black Resource Center; American Indian Resource Center; Asian Pacific Resource Center; and Chicano Resource Center. They're unique to LA County Library: accessible to all - children, teens, and adults - and with resources for the public and academics.

 

They're essential: antidotes to a fragmented society, where people too often fear difference and lash out with hate. They are ways to explore and understand race, racism, civil rights, and protest. They're a place for conversation. A way to build inclusion and understanding in our community.

 

Your support is a stand for equity and justice.

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Workforce (and community) Development: My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Peer Advocates

 

Peer Advocates (young men and women ages 18-28) work in strategically selected libraries to serve youth of color, especially boys, from underserved communities. Peer Advocates work within the community (and typically, it’s their own) to educate and engage these youth and their families about Library programs and services.

 

They sign students up for Library cards, serve as tutors and mentors, and during the pandemic, are developing and presenting STEAM and cultural programming.

 

In turn, Peer Advocates develop leadership and career skills and earn a California living wage. Many continue to college or advanced degrees; others find continuing employment within the extensive County system of which they’re part.

 

Peer Advocates also work with nonprofit partner Barbershop Books. They help develop Little Libraries in shops where barbers are trained to engage boys in talking about and reading books while they wait or have their hair cut.

 

The Library currently has 10 Little Libraries in the Compton area, a school district where fewer than 30% of elementary school students read at grade level; boys, on average, read at lower levels than girls. Reading (or not) at grade level by third grade is a strong indicator of future socioeconomic success or failure, including potential incarceration.

 

Each Peer Advocate is charged with exciting kids (and their families) about reading, getting them into the Library, and connecting them with resources, support, and opportunities for educational and future economic success.

 

Your investment will help fund additional Peer Advocates and strengthen individuals and communities.

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VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING - Spark Creativity and combat isolation...something for everyone

Cultural, arts, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math) programming are fundamental to each of the Library's 86 locations and the communities they serve.

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The Library's fleet of MākMō maker mobiles (with programs like computer coding, robotics, 3D printing, cardboard construction, and more) may not be on the road right now...but Library staff is serving up lots of creative STEAM, arts, and cultural programs for you - virtually.

 

Your generosity will help people develop vital skills and ways of thinking about real-world challenges.

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Reading Matters - Developing Literacy, Building Collections
Reading matters. Strong readers get higher paying jobs. They navigate more easily through life. If a child isn’t reading at grade level by third grade, they probably won’t graduate from high school. And from there, they’ll likely struggle economically; many will end up in the criminal justice system.
 

Literacy programming at the Library start early – with babies, toddlers, and their adults (think Virtual Storytime or Baby Band Practice) – and they focus on hooking school age children on reading. They don’t stop there. Programs target reluctant and first time readers of any age; they engage English learners and older adults; and they keep people of all ages reading, especially now.

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Books - print and electronic - are always needed. One type is read-along books for new readers, reluctant readers, kids reading below grade level, English learners, and even adults. They’re especially needed in library communities with low literacy rates.

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Your gift will help develop a reader, and open up new worlds.

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TOOLS for JOB SEEKERS - Building Skills for 21st Century Success

Job seekers say the Library is a life-saver. With one-on-one help with resumes and cover letters, resources for locating and landing jobs. Internet. Computers. All of it free.

 

But now, with coronovirus and the need for safe distancing, the Library's physical doors are closed. And in LA County, more people are unemployed than at any time since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

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Your Library is meeting the need - creatively and effectively. With Laptop & Hotspot Loans - you can checkout a chromebook and an internet hotspot, just like a library book. Plus, Work Ready - a six-week virtual employment assistance program - offers job seekers online classes - including personalized resume reviews and interview preparation from a Job Coach, skills building for career opportunities in the new work landscape - and access to mental health, educational, and other employment resources, including a virtual job fair.

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Your generous donation will give a job seeker the tools to succeed.

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Thank you to YOU, our generous individual donors, and to our foundation, civic, and business supporters.

 

You've worked graciously with the Library Foundation as Library staff have creatively and effectively reimagined programming in these tumultuous times.

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Edison International - STEAM programming for Youth

City of Malibu - strengthening the Library Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation - Creative programming (at Claremont Library & virtually)

Monoprice Inc - 3D printers for PPE face shields for hospital workers and later, for use in makerspaces

The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation - strengthening the Library Foundation

F Schumacher - fabric that staff sewed into masks for frontline responders

CW Stockwell - masks for frontline responders

Watson Land Company - supporting Carson Library

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LA County Library Foundation is an exempt organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax Identification Number: 95-3766899.