The Little Free Library Encourages Literacy in Baton Rouge Community
The Little Free Library in Millennial Park (Picture provided by Millennial Park’s Instagram page)
As the Volunteer and Community Partner Director at the non-profit Volunteers In Public Schools (VIPS), Kaia Simmons takes pride in providing help and unique learning services to underserved students, like establishing a free library in the Baton Rouge community.
"We believe in pushing education in Baton Rouge communities," said Simmons.
For Simmons, VIPS latest project exceeded her expectations and made a lasting impression in North Baton Rouge.
The free library concept came around early last year, after finding research that showed that the East Baton Rouge Parish Elementary students had limited age-appropriate reading materials in their homes. VIPS wanted to build a long-lasting, positive resource that would benefit the community and help students engage in reading materials. Based on the information that they gathered, VIPS came up with the idea to have a little library to take a book in exchange for leaving a book.
Books provided to the Little Free Library (Pictures provided by Kaia Simmons)
Kids holding books in the Little Free Library (Picture provided by Kaia Simmons)
VIPS was created based on the inequitable resources in the school system in Baton Rouge. The nonprofit builds support for public education by forging relationships between community partners and public schools.
When COVID-19 spread in Louisiana, VIPS noticed the limitations for in-person help, so the non-profit thought of a creative and resilient way to promote literacy and support public schools. This involved VIPS partnering with the outdoor food court, Millennial Park, owned by Cameron Jackson.
Student from the Mentorship Academy painting the Little Free Library (Picture provided by Kaia Simmons)
"We knew the population served at Millennial Park as well as the surrounding community would benefit significantly from an assortment of books made readily available to them with easy access,” Simmons said about working with Jackson.
When Jackson heard the concept, he came up with the literacy space at Millennial Park. Jackson and VIPS recruited the students at the charter school, Mentorship STEAM Academy to decorate the free library.
“Seeing the structure as a permanent fixture in their community creates normalcy for the love of reading, and hopefully inspires children to be curious about a world outside of only what is familiar to them,” Simmons said.
The kids in the community posting with the Little Free Library (Picture provided by Kaia Simmons)
The free library is a part of VIPS' mission, where the organization builds support for public education. VIPS sought opportunities to bring as many books into households as possible. The organization wants to help students advance their reading skills and partnering with Millennial Park made this possible.
Any community organization, volunteer service group, or business interested in partnering can contact Kaia Simmons at ksimmons1@ebrschools.org or 225-810-3230.