Focus on Community
This year we concentrated on a number of initiatives to enhance the ways we share our resources and facilities.
Building Social Service Bridges and Meeting Basic Needs
With the Library’s unprecedented growth in services and activities over the two years following our full reopening, we experienced a parallel increase in the number of people of all ages visiting PPL who were in need of more than traditional library services. In response, we committed to establishing and expanding, as possible, a multitude of initiatives and partnerships with local social service agencies to help meet these growing needs. Often, we are able to facilitate a critical connection to an available service just by coordinating with varied organizations to be onsite on a predetermined schedule. Among key organizations we work with is Better Lives Rhode Island, which staffs PPL with a social worker on a consistent basis to address the needs of our housing and food insecure patrons.
Other efforts resulting from targeted grant seeking by PPL have enabled the Library to provide needed resources and services directly to our more vulnerable patrons. For instance, through a Basic Needs grant from the Rhode Island Foundation we were able to pilot an Essential Needs Pantry, through which we and our partners could meet some of the basic resource needs of hundreds of individuals over the past year providing backpacks filled with everything from hygiene supplies, to snacks, to blankets and cold weather wear, as well as information and referrals to other public agencies able to deliver more comprehensive support. In another venture, by connecting with Hope & Main’s Nourish Our Neighbors program, we have been able to establish a freezer stocked with food donations for our food insecure patrons. Since its start, hundreds of meals have been given to patrons of all ages. In a similar partnership with PVD Period, we are able to put feminine hygiene kits in our restrooms.
Additional organizations we work with in varying degrees and for everything from direct services to staff training, include Anchor Recovery Rhode Island, Behavioral Health & Homelessness Prevention, City of Providence, Crossroads Rhode Island, Family Services of Rhode Island, Neighborworks Blackstone River Valley Rhode Island, Planned Parenthood, Project Weber RENEW, Rhode Island Department of Health, and United Way.
Community Access Fund Established
In an exciting development, thanks to a Papitto Opportunity Connection grant and other generous donors, we were able to increase access to and use of our spaces by a wide range of individuals and groups through a newly created Community Access Fund. From budding filmmakers premiering their work, to youth dance groups, to students and artists engaging with the community to mount exhibits and deliver public programs, we witnessed firsthand the abundant creative energy within our community.
Among groups that we were able to support through the Community Access Fund were: the Anti-Racism Coalition and the Providence Human Relations Commission, Beat The Streets New England, Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading, Providence Afterschool Alliance (PASA), PVD Promise, Reverie Theatre Group, Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Southside Elementary, Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts (TAPA) Year Up, and Young Voices RI.
RIFLI’s 25th Anniversary Year Celebrated
Over its 25-year history, the Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative (RIFLI) has evolved and expanded, but always stayed true to its goal of tailoring literacy learning to meet the specific needs of our community.
The program has its roots in the 1980s when, with a desire to respond to the ESL/literacy needs of a growing immigrant community, PPL staff implemented a Family Literacy Program based on Ruth Handel and Marianne Goldsmith’s Family Literacy Model. The practice was modeled after “evidence-based” family literacy models tailored to library settings. The majority of students were working parents who needed the flexibility of an evening, morning, or a Saturday program.
Federal funding ended in 1995, however, leaving thriving adult literacy programs like PPL’s, and others in libraries around the state, in crisis. In response, librarians and local literacy advocates collaborated to secure new funding through the Rhode Island Foundation and, in 1998, two of the libraries ran a pilot program modeled after PPL’s Family Literacy Program (FLP). This served as the foundation for the RIFLI of today, for which PPL continues as fiscal agent. Today, RIFLI receives continued funding from its primary source, the Rhode Island Department of Education.
Now constituting the primary component of the Library’s “Language Pathways” in PPL’s Education Department, RIFLI continues to achieve national recognition. Its mission remains focused on helping learners improve their literacy and communication skills while supporting their work, education, and personal goals. The program strives to orient newcomers to life in the U.S. and Rhode Island and promote equity by expanding access to education and skill-building, providing a welcoming environment for all, and facilitating access to other services through information and referrals.
In FY23, RIFLI served 424 ESL students and 78 Citizenship students from more than 50 countries. More than 36 percent (150) of ESL students increased at least one grade level in reading, while 37 obtained jobs, 219 retained jobs, 19 entered college or a training program, 52 obtained a digital literacy assessment certificate, and 27 became U.S. citizens.
To mark RIFLI’s 25th Anniversary, PPL celebrated throughout the year telling individuals’ stories through a series of videos and a special celebration at the Library was held and attended by more than 150 students and their family members. Student achievements were lauded and awarded.