When SLA-SD kindly provided a donation last spring to help support the La Roca Library project, chapter members asked to be informed later about the project's impacts.
During the 2008-2009 school year, the project provided professional staffing and enhanced resources (including an improved computer lab with Web access) for the small onsite library at La Roca - a homeless shelter and community center in Tijuana.
At the end of the project last May, librarian Maria Luisa Mendez Lozada, who headed up the project on the ground, reported metrics including:
- 2,169 library visitors (this figure includes some folks who were counted more than once, as they visited on multiple occasions) during the course of the project.
- 1,317 books consulted in the La Roca Library.
- 157 learning activities (e.g., story hours, literacy games) delivered in the La Roca Library and in La Roca Primary School classrooms and reaching 1,140 youngsters aged 3-12.
- 125 computer classes delivered in the library and reaching 863 students including youth and adults.
Through the project, many youth and adults gained skills, including library skills and computer literacy skills. In the photo, you can see two La Roca community members enjoying the La Roca Library computer lab.
A fuller account of the impacts of the La Roca Library project is available at http://libraryconnect.blogspot.com/2009/09/la-roca-library-project-touched-many.html.
"Why I like the library" thank-you notes from La Roca youth and adults are available on the Library Connect Facebook page at www.facebook.com/libraryconnect.
Again, a big thanks goes to SLA-SD for its kind support of the project.
Even though the La Roca Library project has concluded, Elsevier San Diego's support of La Roca continues.
Elsevier San Diego continues to partner with the nonprofit Corazon de Vida to support education for Tijuana youth. In September 2009, Elsevier's philanthropic program RE Cares awarded Corazon de Vida a $13,000 grant to cover tuition, uniforms and school transportation for 100 students from the Hacienda, La Roca and Casa de Paz shelters during the 2009-2010 school year.
For updates on how Elsevier San Diego is partnering with Corazon de Vida to support vulnerable youth and orphans in Tijuana, please visit www.projectlaroca.blogspot.com/.
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Article written by Daria DeCooman
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