Designers for Learning is a proud member of the Chicago Literacy Alliance (CLA), a coalition of over 130 nonprofits dedicated toward a mission of a 100% literate Chicago. The CLA’s Literacenter, a 27,000 sqft co-working space, is Designers for Learning’s “home office” and my home away from home.
I took this picture today at the CLA monthly Confab, a monthly gathering at the Literacenter “to showcase what’s hot in literacy”. Today’s session featured updates from several members, including Vicki White, President of Chicago Books for Women in Prison. Like Designers for Learning, they are a 100% volunteer-based nonprofit, but they’ve been supplying books to women in prison for over 17 years, including 13,500 books and composition books in 2018. Vicki noted that prisons tend to have small, poorly stocked libraries, and some systems bar the distribution of books. Each dispatch of books includes a personal note handwritten from one of the volunteers. Like most at the CLA, they are looking for partners, as well as a bigger space with low rent to house their operations.
If you’re in the Chicago area, check out Pipeline, their upcoming fundraising event at the Victory Gardens Theater. From the event page:
“Pipeline brings to light a powerful and important conversation about parenthood, the state of our public school system, and the prison pipeline that claims so many of our inner-city youth.”