Little Free Libraries expected to be installed across Detroit in August
Several children gathered outside of a Brilliant Detroit Hub in the Littlefield Community on Detroit's west side for the opportunity to read, draw and take a free book home.
About 35 residents from the community gathered to celebrate the installation of a Little Free Library at a Brilliant Detroit Hub last week. The organization plans to install 20 more Little Free Library stations throughout Detroit later this month. Most of them will be located at their neighborhood hubs.
Gale Cengage, an education technology company, and its large-print book publishing division Thorndike Press, are sponsoring the project with Little Free Library and Brilliant Detroit.
The Little Free Library operates as a book exchange system, where anyone who comes across it can both take a book and leave a book.
Brilliant Detroit provides free programming and support for families with children who are newborn to 8 years old. Across its 18 locations in Detroit, which include Brightmoor and Morningside, Brilliant Detroit has repurposed houses into family hubs.
At a hub, families can find parental resources, weekly events, tutoring, and reading services for children.
“Our main goal is to make sure that when kids are sort of aged out of our efforts, they are reading at grade level by third grade,” said Cindy Eggleton, co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Detroit. She said the nonprofit's main goal is to boost Detroit’s literacy rates. The Littlefield neighborhood does not have a library, according to the city's neighborhoods website.
“Literacy should be a right. We believe that. And we want to make sure that changes for kids,” Eggleton said.
But it’s not just educational services and family support that Brilliant Detroit provides. One of its missions is also to support community. As one resident, Ella Satterfield said, “This has literally been our second family.”
Charlotte Blackwell, community engagement coordinator for the Brilliant Detroit Littlefield site, said the organization uses a holistic approach to its services. This approach means teaching children about health and nutrition, physical activity and how to build relationships.
“I think that the service that they are providing here is allowing the kids to learn how to follow instruction and to interact with the other children,” said Freda White, a Littlefield resident. She said Brilliant Detroit programs filled in gaps in socialization for her two grandchildren that may have been left during the pandemic.
“We’re getting back to the basics,” Blackwell said. “We think that a free library can reconnect the kids to the actual books,” she added.
Gale Cengage, a provider of research and digital learning resources, was in charge of building and providing the Little Free Libraries for Brilliant Detroit. The libraries were built in May.
“We want reading to be at their fingertips,” said Paul Gazzolo, senior vice president and general manager at Gale Cengage. He said he believes access to books in a local community is what gets kids engaged in reading.
Gazzolo said providing large-print books in their libraries helps ease the transition for younger children when it comes to learning how to read. He said the company’s efforts are about seeing a connection between children building confidence in reading and having new opportunities.
Jack Williams, a recent graduate of Seaholm High School, and Sandra Fu, a recent graduate of Huron High School, are 2023 summer apprentices at the Detroit Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Brilliant Detroit to install Little Free Libraries in Detroit
