WebJunction

The Pima County (AZ) Public Library's Project LIFT was selected as WebJunction's choice for Library of the Month for a couple of different reasons. We learned about their innovative outreach and service to teen parents and were impressed by the scope of work they have accomplished in their community. Equally impressive, however, is their thorough documentation of the process of the project. This finely developed process has allowed PCPL to be successful replicating the project to over forty six sites. If you're considering a teen parent program in your library, we know you'll find their tools helpful.

Students Creating Baby Books at Marana High School

Frederica Leonardo-Torres served as the curriculum consultant to Project LIFT. She currently coordinates and teaches the curriculum to the forty six sites which include parenting programs in schools, alternative education programs, social service agencies and the reservation. Quite often these young parents confide in her that they don't feel they have much control over their life since becoming a parent. As the young parents participate in the literacy activities during the ten sessions they find that Project LIFT empowers them to have control over their child's social, cultural and educational learning.

The ten sessions are broken out as follows:

Session 1: Benefits of Reading to Baby

Session 2: Understanding the Magic of Bonding

Session 3: Types of Books that Babies and Children Like

Session 4: Planning for the Construction of a Cloth Book

Sessions 5-9: Book Making

Session 10: Graduation/Celebration.

During the book making process, parents are expected to incorporate one lesson to teach their child into each book. Some students wanted to teach their child how to spell their name, others incorporated the alphabet and numbers, and one student used the book to teach their child manners. At graduation the teen parents' efforts are celebrated by presenting them with the Project LIFT certificate they've earned. They also receive a library canvas bag to use on their visits to the library, and 'shop' choosing from a selection of multicultural books for themselves and their child.

Project LIFT has been running for ten years and participants report that they develop a passion for reading to their children as they learn the benefits of providing early literacy skills to their son or daughter. While visiting Marana High School, one of the Project LIFT sites, students told WebJunction staff how the project has changed their reading habits with their child. The mothers said they were reading to their children every night, that they found reading had a calming effect on their children, and they found it helped their child become more socially interactive. One young mother said that she was reading to her baby in both English and Spanish because she wanted her child to be comfortable reading bilingually. The success indicators built into the curriculum consist of: Classroom Teacher Survey utilized for direct feedback on program effectiveness; Evaluation Form providing direct feedback from the program participants; Pre and Post Surveys measure changes in reading behaviors.

Baby Book created by Kristy R. Holmes

Project LIFT was the only public library program selected in 1997 to receive a grant from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. The Friends of the Pima County Public Library, the Pima County Public Library budget, Grants and workshops that I provide through the Arizona State Parent Information Resource Center help with funding to provide a quality program. National and local praise and financial support of this program is only a partial indicator of its success. The fact that Frederica has been able to replicate this program in over 46 sites in a ten year time span indicate the program can be scaled to different class sizes and locations and can be replicated all over the country, not just one county. We commend PCPL for their fantastic program and thank Frederica for generously providing WebJunction with Project LIFT's curriculum and evaluation tools.