Turning Point Prize

It is now official! I won the Turning Point Prize from the Women for Social Innovation here in Philadelphia! The Women for Social Innovation is a group of women, who for the last 4 years have come together to fund projects and programs in Philadelphia that especially benefit girls, women, and families.

They have funded some great projects in the past: a free after-school music program for kids, and a project to help single moms get the resources and help they need to go back to school.

So obviously, I am very honored - and excited - to win. Its great to finally get positive feedback about the work that I am trying to do.

The award itself is actually not for Library Build though - however, it did spin out of Library Build. I wrote the application for a program that I have wanted to implement for some time now. The idea comes from curriculum I wrote on Anne Frank while I was teaching, and from a program for fifth grade girls that I created and ran in a Philly middle school back in the days of being the intern.

The program is called Philly Girls Read, and hopefully later can be expanded to other cities, and it is an after school reading program that promotes and encourages active reading. Here's what I mean by active reading. Girls will read 6 books:

1. The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
2. Esperanza Rising, Pam Ryan
3. Red Scarf Girl, Ji-li Jiang
4. Sold, Patricia McCormick
5. Zlata's Diary, Zlata Filipovic
6. Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, Mildred Taylor


And in the context of reading these 6 books, girls will learn about the circumstances that revolve around the protagonist in each story. For example, the history of WWII and racism while reading Anne Frank's diary. But beyond learning about those circumstances, because let's face it this is an after school program and should be fun!, girls will learn how to create and implement their own advocacy campaigns based around the issues brought up in the books that truly effect them.

That's the general overview. I am working on writing the curriculum right now. I'm more than half way through it, and will start smoothing out the other kinks in my business plan so that this can get off the ground and running in 2012-2013 school year.

I set up a website: www.phillygirlsread.org, though there's not much on it right now. I also have someone working on designing a logo as well, which I am very excited about!

I'm sure there will be more updates soon!