Building a community, one book at a time
No matter whether a school is within the traditional public school district or a charter school, we are here to help. Through the expertise of both school and public librarians we are creating pathways and funding infrastructure so that all fledgling school libraries in the city can support their students with great books and solid system. We know that we are stronger together and that the most impactful literacy initiatives in the city will be those built with the hands of many.
Detroit Partner Schools
Academy of the Americas Cub Campus
Social worker, Melissa Ponce, has led the charge in restarting her school’s library. Students in grades preK-3rd grade are able to check books out of the school's growing bilingual collection and they hope to expand library operations to the upper elementary and middle school, too!
Edmonson Elementary
Edmonson Elementary is in year one of beginning to process books into an online catalog. They have several dedicated teachers and volunteers helping with this work, but could always use additional help in making their dream of having a functional library a reality.
University Prep Academy High School
UPA’s school library, the first in the school’s history, is just over three years old. It was spearheaded by Brian Peck through a project based learning class that he designed with students. Students are library ambassadors and the strongest proponents of the space. They have undergone a recent expansion and have added an impressive makerspace. Over $125,000 of investment have gone into making the space a state of the art media center.
Palmer Park Preparatory Academy
Palmer Park’s library was restarted just over two years ago and has only grown since then. Students gain leadership skills through participation in the Library Advisory Board and are expanding their advocacy to the addition of libraries in other schools.
The School at Marygrove
The School at Marygrove has a physical library space due to the advocacy of Carla Shalaby during the architectural planning stages of building the school. Their high school collection is categorized and they are working on categorizing their elementary collection. They are looking for additional volunteers to help with this. If you’d love to get connected to Marygrove, let us know!