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Normally when I go to work, it's time to, you know, work. But lucky me, one of my latest work projects has been an absolute blast.
Our building contains a secure detention center that holds juveniles (youths typically between the ages of 12 and 17) who are awaiting a court hearing due to an allegation of committing a law violation. Having toured a number of "model site" juvenile detention centers throughout the United States it occurred to me that something we were seriously lacking for our kids was a decent library.
I was able to develop a partnership with our local library district. They've been exceptionally helpful and even donated 50 books to start our collection. When the books were delivered the kids were ecstatic! We have a teacher in our facility who told me, "You'd have thought we won the lottery." Many of these kids never picked up anything but a video game or remote before. And now they're learning to love reading.
Our next step is to obtain bookcases, chairs, and a rug to define the "library" area. I've secured funding to buy an additional 50 books and one of my collaborative team members is planning a book drive for the center.
It doesn't matter who they are, where they come from, or what they may have done. Kids reading is a wonderful thing, isn't it?
