Our partnerships with these two barbershops is strategic, as it allows us to address achievement gaps across several populations. These gaps include gender, social economic status, race/ethnicity and English proficiency. These gaps often appear in Kindergarten then later in test scores as they follow many students throughout their academic career. We target the populations who are statistically the least prepared, and work on the skills that are most likely to need extra support.

While visiting:

• We talk with the families about reading and library services and they choose a book to keep.
• We create culturally competent and linguistically appropriate reading spaces in the barbershops.
• We facilitate maker programs on our visits to excite young people about creating content.
• We demonstrate our virtual resources to families, such as free online tutoring services in English and Spanish.

All of this empowers children to see themselves as readers and programmers.

We have experienced buy-in from both barbershop owners. One owner incentivized reading by offering free haircuts to the young men who turned in a book report on their next visit. The other has begun using library services to study for the GED and to improve her English. Having the support of these role models has resulted in families from these communities coming into the library. In total, 200 books have been distributed, 510 people have been engaged and 83 people have participated.