The Sunshine Bridge

EE: This is The Sunshine Bridge, a show which highlights the work of those who serve to better their community and looks at the diverse perspectives of Louisiana. Thanks for listening.

Down on Florida Blvd. across from the Baton Rouge General is Millennial Park, the container park that’s a great stop for a bite to eat and a moment to relax and hang out. If you’ve been by recently, you may have noticed a small new addition to it: a Little Free Library - you know, the home constructed cases with shelves of free books to borrow. This one is bright yellow, covered with wonderful artwork, and even comes with blackboards on its sides and a spot in which to sit.

I wondered who made such a neat reading space? I found that it was VIPS Baton Rouge, or “Volunteers in Public Schools.” Kaia Simmons is its Volunteer and Community Partners Director. When we talked, she told me about how the Little Library came about. It’s no surprise with the paintings on the library’s panels that a lot of creativity was involved, but even getting the project to go took some thinking outside of the box.

Kaia Simmons: So, the Little Library started with the idea of, you know, providing books to students and communities, which is a big mission of ours. Unfortunately we don’t realize that a lot of children don’t have age-appropriate reading material in the household, and studies show that the more books in a household, the better trajectory the child will have for their future, just having immediate access to age-appropriate material. And so we thought about who could we partner with to set up Little Free Libraries? That’s an initiative that is a national thing that is done outside of VIPS, and it just kind of evolved. And this was actually around the time where COVID was first peaking, and schools were closed, and we had to be innovative as to how we can continue to provide our services. So this project is very unique because typically we send our volunteers into the schools. All of our services are direct services into public schools during school hours. But we had a little flexibility to be creative, and so we partnered with Millennial Park, which is a new container restaurant and commerce space here in Baton Rouge, really, really cool. The CEO is a young progressive guy, Cameron Jackson. I approached him to introduce VIPS to him and tell him what we do. He was very excited about it, and so I said, “You know, it would be really neat if you had a literacy space here on the grounds for patrons, families to enjoy, you know. They have an outdoor dining area, so while they’re eating, children can be reading children’s books, and they can take the free books as well. And so, we just brainstormed and said, “You know, well, we can build a construction here. Our thing is that we have to incorporate students because our services are for East Baton Rouge Parish Public School students, right? You know, we have tutoring programs for elementary, but our partnerships are for elementary, middle, and high school, so we brainstormed and said, you know, “What high school has maybe a digital media or digital arts program, things like that, where the students can be creative and display their artwork? And so we contacted a school and had the students design the artwork and work with the teachers, and they came on-site and did the painting and the artwork and the beautiful images that you see on the library.

EE: The whole thing…I’m just really overwhelmed at how beautiful it is.

KS: Yes, they did a great job.

EE: It’s a little nook.

KS: Yeah, exactly! It’s super cute! I love it!

EE: Yeah. No. It’s really cool. But you know, was there just some vibe there, or did you say business-wise, this will be, is it just about foot traffic?

KS: It’s visibility. That area is a great area for visibility, and the patrons that he already serves at Millennial Park, with the variety of restaurants. You know, they bring children. He has events there all the time, and it’s just a wonderful outdoor space to congregate. And adding a literacy piece to that environment, it just was magic.

EE: I understand that there are literacy materials in it. Whenever I read “literacy materials,” this was something I was reading on the website, I was just like, “You mean books?”

KS: Yes,

EE: What does that mean?

KS: So there’s ACT prep books. There’s all kinds of test prep materials, there’s coloring sheets, worksheets as well as books. And there’s also adult books too. You know, just all sorts of resources that would benefit our youth.

EE: It’s not just kids. So if a parent is there. Not even a parent, just a person that says, “Oh look. A library is right there.”

KS: Right. So we actually worked with Knock Knock Museum, and they donated a lot of books, and we did some book drives. So, just fortunately there was a mixture of the types of books that were donated, and we’re not going to turn away any material, and I think it’s a draw to have some of the adult material there because you know, adults need reading also, and if adults have a love for reading, then they translate that passion to children.

EE: It’s outside. There is this take a book, leave a book.

KS: Right.

EE: So, how has that worked so far?

KS: So all the books are free. If you visit the library and you like something, feel free to walk away with it. Now, that is not a concept that VIPS developed. Again, you know, this is inspired by the Little Free Library initiative, and that is their concept. And so…I love that model. There’s no pressure or obligation or you know, we have to make sure to bring it back, which can be a deterrent. But, nope. If you walk up to it, you like it, hang out, sit down. Grab something to eat, read the book, or put it back. Or if you have books you want to donate, you can go over there, stock the library, keep it stocked for us.

EE: Would you leave like a whole box of books? Because obviously the shelves can only hold so much, but I imagine…. What happens to those books?

KS: So, if anyone wants to donate books, just contact VIPS. Our phone number is 226-4700. Or email me directly at ksimmons1@ebrschools.org, and we’ll keep them in our office, and as the books diminish when people of course are taking the books, which is what we encourage, then we can restock the books.

EE: Okay, so that’s how…because it is the honor system, really. “Take a book, leave a book,” But sometimes you walk up and you just go, “I don’t have a book.”

KS: Yeah, only if you have a book that you want to give, it’s really not a requirement to leave a book or replace what you took. As long as we’re getting these books out in the community, our job is being done.

EE: Okay. Tell me more about the artwork. I love the artwork. The artwork is so beautiful.

KS: Yes, it’s beautiful.

EE: How did the day go constructing it?

KS: We contacted Mentorship Academy, and those are a group of very talented teachers and students, and we worked directly with art teachers and the digital design teachers. They were very hands on with working with the students in-house as well as making sure that they were on site to do the painting. So, we partnered with Mid-city Redevelopment and Aramark, and they both donated paint and paint supplies, and we just got to it. The teachers, I really have to give it to them. They were very hands on with helping the students transfer their ideas and artwork onto the building. And the art is actually themes from children’s books.

EE: Okay. Cool. Cool.

KS: It’s inspired by children’s books.

EE: So, and I didn’t realize that it was students that were doing the painting.

KS: Yes.

EE: That’s really amazing.

KS: Yes. So they did the painting themselves under the guidance of Ms. Obie and Ms. Elsie.

EE: Okay. That is really cool. What…how does that work with like, the weather and stuff? And I know this is just kind of a common question with Little Libraries in general, but how is it that….

KS: Especially in Louisiana weather.

EE: Tell me about it, right?

KS: (laughs)Well, it doesn’t seem to have had a negative effect on the books. I assume you’re referring to maybe mold and all the rain. Fortunately it is an enclosed case, but you know moisture can get in, but fortunately we haven’t had any issues with the books being damaged which is a blessing.

EE: Okay, that’s good. And then as far as later on in the evening, you know because it’s Millennial Park. They close, so when they close….

KS: Mmhmm. It’s open and accessible.

EE: Is it?

KS: 24/7. If anybody wants to walk up and grab a book, by all means please do.

EE: If you have this feeling that you should just take a book at some point….

KS: Yeah.

EE: Any time, 24/7? Go for it.

KS: Any time. It’s there for the public. It’s open and accessible to the public.

EE: I love that. That’s just a real nice sense of community.

KS: Yeah. And you know, imagine being a high school student and being able to pass by this structure and know that you contributed your beautiful ideas and skills and talents to making it beautiful, and it really is beautiful. I couldn’t have imagined anything more better than what they’ve done. Just a sense of pride and having stock in a structure that is so beautiful and that encourages literacy.

EE: Mmhmm. Tell me a little bit about how COVID has kind of maybe had any kind of effect on any of this.

KS: On VIPS as a whole?

EE: Mhmm.

KS: So like I said, this project is very unique. Typically our volunteers are paired one on one with a student that has been recommended to our programs by their teachers.

EE: And I was reading something that it’s 1000 students that get recommended….

KS: Yes.

EE: I didn’t realize.

KS: It’s about between 900 and 1000 students get recommended because they have been identified as underperforming either in literacy or math. So we have two programs: Everybody Reads is for reading and Everyone Counts is for math. We do early literacy intervention for Pre-K to 2nd graders, and the math is for 1st to 3rd graders. And so what happens is that at the beginning of every school year we send out letters, forms to teachers saying, you know, recommend students to our programs that you have identified that may be underperforming. So we give them about a month or two, you know, to get familiar with the students and see how they perform, and then they start sending in recommendations around September, November, and then we are constantly recruiting volunteers. So COVID has, to answer your question, has dramatically impacted the number of volunteers that are able to participate because of COVID. Especially when schools closed, our whole model was kind of shaken up because we do one on one tutoring. Our volunteers go to the school during school hours, and it’s about the relationship, it’s about the consistency, the rapport that you build, and if you can’t have that contact with the students, it’s a challenge. But we did convert to virtual, and that boded well, but we lost a lot of volunteer participation, and as you can imagine, we didn’t have as many student referrals just because everything was virtual and they were at home.

EE: Right.

KS: So the numbers did dramatically drop.

EE: It’s hard to connect virtually.

KS: It is. It is. It really is. And like I said, the model is about the bond and the relationship, and there’s a disconnect virtually, but we did our best to make it work. And we did some other community-type of things like drive-by book donations, you know. We partnered with Child Nutrition, and at the different food distribution sites, we had community partners that would purchase books, and we would give them books also.

EE: Nice.

KS: And so that worked out well. It was really neat.

EE: Oh my goodness. If you said, “Okay, Elizabeth. Here’s lunch and a book,” I would never say no to that.

KS: And not just one book. I mean, each car might have gotten 5 books for their children. Just to give the impact of the dramatic need for volunteers, we’re constantly looking for community partners, which is more of a group or an organization or a business or a church that could come into a school and do something once a week or biweekly or once a month, one time. We encourage consistency. So that’s what a partnership would look like, and it could be a special event, it could be sharing your skills and talents, it could be anything to expose students to something that they otherwise wouldn’t experience, or just to support the school with whatever is going on.

We have the individual volunteers that tutor. Like, we talked about the number of student referrals - between 900 to 1000. We have about 600 volunteers at one time. So that 300 to 400 students that have been recommended, what happens if we can’t pair them with a volunteer to have additional support? Then they continue to fall behind. And so we are constantly encouraging people to contact us to volunteer. And the volunteering is just once a week for 30 to 45 minutes.

EE: Right.

KS: Once a week throughout the school year from September to May. Then the students are performing back on grade level by the end of the school year. And that’s what we want. And we just want to be able to fill the void of students that are not matched with a volunteer because we don’t have enough volunteers.

EE: Right, and when I saw that number, 1000, I thought - wow. Because really, you are looking for kind of a one-to-one, that would be the ideal.

KS: Yes.

EE: So you would want ideally 1000 people….

KS: (laughs) At least a thousand volunteers. Yes.

EE: …in Baton Rouge to just help out and do the thing.

KS: That’s right. And the commitment is not a burdensome commitment. It’s just once a week for a hour. And we can find a school that’s close to you whether it’s on your commute to and from work, near your job, near your home, whatever is convenient for you.

EE: Right. And so this is just open if you’re East Baton Rouge Parish, you can volunteer.
KS: Yes. That’s right. 18 and up. We do do a background check because you’re working with a child one on one, and that’s pretty much the only two major requirements. A love for working with children and a love for reading.

EE: Okay. Cool. If you are outside of East Baton Rouge.

KS: If you are willing to work inside of Baton Rouge because we serve East Baton Rouge Parish, but by all means, you know, a lot of people do work inside the city but live outside in the surrounding areas. You are more than welcome to volunteer.

EE: Getting back to the Little Library, what kind of activities do you have planned?

KS: Well, as it relates to the Library, that’s just a project that was done and is a permanent fixture at Millennial Park, and so it’s there and accessible for everyone. That was just a unique project that we’re very happy to have been able to do, and it was a great experience, and it also pushed us to see what our possibilities are. Even COVID, you know, it showed us how to be progressive and find virtual platforms that our volunteers could use as tools through the tutoring programs. It showed us if we had to be virtual, if we could facilitate that. So, it’s always good to be able to do these types of programs and to see who all is on board to support, but our main goal is to supplement the lack of resources in public schools through community involvement.

EE: Okay. Huh.

KS: Mmhm.

EE: I’m just thinking about that because, you know, you’re telling me about the virtual stuff, and then you have something that’s just totally counter to that.

KS: Mmhm.

EE: What is it that you mean when you say “progressive” as far as schools are concerned?

KS: Well, my thoughts are that, you know, the way that we had to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate how we can deliver our services with the challenges that COVID presented, that was progressive, you know, because we never considered doing virtual tutoring because it just…our model just wasn’t applicable to that.

EE: It wasn’t really. Like you said….

KS: It was the one-on-one tutoring.

EE: …you need the connection….

KS: Mmhmm.

EE: …and it’s just kind of not working in the same way.

KS: Right. But we did make it work for the time being, and when schools opened back up, then we eliminated the virtual option and went back to what works best.

EE: Okay, so had COVID not happened, would this Little Library still have happened?

KS: That is a good question. Umm…it probably would have been an idea that was of interest, but I think pushing it through was more of a motivation because COVID happened.

EE: Wow.

KS: Yeah, I think I can attest to that.

EE: That’s wild.

KS: You know, knowing me, I’m always coming up with creative ideas, “Why don’t we do this? Can’t we do this?” And I have to get reeled back in, “Well, Kaia, remember we serve public schools directly(laughs). You know, and that’s not a school.” And so that’s why we brought in a school to do the work, do the art work and they gained so many skills with that experience. And you know how you have to tie it in to literacy in some way just to stay on track with the purpose of our organization and mission. But that’s a good question.

EE: And that goes back into funding and grants and that sort of thing, checking the boxes, making sure that….

KS: Right. You have to stay in line with what was the original plan and the original mission.

EE: So, this time the original plan still was….

KS: It still, because we still focused on literacy, we still served a school, and we provided books. This was just a very unique project that was a great experience and just showed us possibilities.

EE: That’s really cool.

KS: Mmhmm.

EE: Really cool. Really cool.

KS: Just to give you some background about why I’m emphasizing that we serve public schools directly, you know, VIPS was established in 1981. Our founders established VIPS in response to failed desegregation efforts. And it’s a pretty known fact that when desegregation happened, despite the intentions, a lot of resources left the communities and left public schools and left public schools in need of resources that were deplenished.

EE: Well, tell me what happened in 1981.

KS: Well, I mean that was just the repercussions of public schools suffering because of funding being removed, community support being removed, we can go into different….

EE: Well, what happened with the buses? What exactly happened with the buses?

KS: Well, with busing, there was an effort to migrate students from underserved communities to communities that may have been a little more affluent, and it just caused a shift in demographics, and I think the intention that was not foreseen was that it just resulted in maybe more community being against that idea of desegregation….

EE: Right.

KS: …and so they took their students out of public schools and put them in private schools or other parishes which equates to resources being taken out of public schools also.

EE: Right…so…this kind of sounds like white flight to me.

KS: Basically(laughs).

EE: (laughs) Okay. I don’t know. I don’t want to sit here and….

KS: (laughs) Basically. That’s pretty much precisely what(laughs)….

EE: (laughs) I’m laughing because it feels like you sound uncomf…I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, you know.

KS: Well, you know. Depending on the listening audience, you know, sometimes that’s not as well received, and it’s not understood what that really means….

EE: Right.

KS: So I rather explain what that means than just….

EE: Call that out….

KS: …put a label on it that sounds harsh. But in reality it is harsh for the students that suffer.

EE: Right. Yeah.

KS: Because public schools you know, what I’ve found has a negative stigma, but the thing is there’s a lot of talent in these students. There’s a lot of talented teachers that go unnoticed because of that stigma, and I think a lot of light needs to be shed on the quality of education that is possible and that we’re working very hard to achieve and in a lot of ways are actually excelling. And the issue is that we like to keep reinventing the wheel. If you have issue with public schools or anything really, why don’t you invest more into getting it where you think it should be instead of reopening and splitting minimal funding that is already available and dividing it more and more and more. Everyone suffers. Even new educational platforms and schools and things like that because that’s just less funding that is available. It’s more time. More salaries. Instead of just reinvesting back into these community schools and public schools and developing programs, using funding to put back into these schools instead of redirecting it elsewhere. It’s a steady flow of resources that are being projected outwardly and spread thin.

EE: Right. Right. Kind of the thought at least of - Let’s see what we can do here.

KS: Mmhmm. Let’s evaluate what’s happening in public schools and where can we better allocate funding to be more proactive in solving problems instead of, “Oh, this school is not working. Let’s just take some money away from that,” and then the schools continue to deteriorate, and the money you (laughs) could have been using to get these schools up to par to your standards, you know. It’s going into building new constructions, and it’s constantly starting from scratch over and over and over and over, and that’s just more division of money.

EE: It always goes back to money(laughs).

KS: Unfortunately it does. But, you know, it takes money.

EE: It does.

KS: It does.

EE: If somebody wants to contribute in any kind of way, definitely want to leave that open for you to….

KS: Please. We do take donations. We are based, we’re an independent non-profit. We do have a small contract with the East Baton Rouge Parish School System to provide community resources to public schools, but that is a small fraction of what keeps us afloat. Grants, donations is our primary means of serving and being able to serve. So if anyone wants to donate or sponsor anything, by all means you can contact us at…you can go to our website, https://vipsbr.org/. You can call us at 226-4700. Our email is vips@ebrschools.org.

EE: Okay. Cool. For anyone that is dealing with literacy issues right now, what can they do at home?

KS: There’s all sorts of resources available on our YouTube channel, actually. Even, we were talking about COVID earlier. During that period, we were very creative in working with some of our partners who would do story times and actually show students how to make activities that are related to the story with minimal materials that you can just find around the house. Just to make it a hands-on experience. So there’s many story times. There’s many recommendations and resources on our website. So between our YouTube, which is VIPSBatonRouge or our website, https://vipsbr.org/. You can find different things that you can do at home. We have reading book lists for every age level. Elementary-aged level. Your local library has a lot of resources. Digital if you don’t want to be in person, or I like Khan Academy Kids, ABC Mouse(laughs). And these are things that are very low cost. If you go to our website, there’s all sorts of resources. There’s a Resource tab. And parents can access it and receive a lot of recommendations…in our YouTube channel for sure.

EE: What’s the name of your YouTube channel?

KS: VIPSBatonRouge. And there’s even a career portal. We have been interviewing community partners of various career fields and disciplines and professions, and they talk about how they got into their fields, what would you need to do, what’s it like, a day in the life working in my field, from technical jobs to skilled labor to lawyers and all sorts of things. And we’re constantly developing that. So if anyone is interested in sharing, inspiring a student about what they do for a living, contact us, and we’ll shoot a 3 to 5 minute video of you talking about it. Don’t underestimate what you have to offer a student because keep in mind a lot of these children don’t know anything outside of their community. And the world is big, and we as adults know that we’ve seen and done a lot. So just share.

EE: I think sometimes, and this is just a personal opinion of mine, but I think that in Louisiana, sometimes we get really boxed in with what our possibilities are….

KS: Right.

EE: And as adults, that continues to translate down to the kids, and if you don’t break that cycle, it just kind of keeps, you know….

KS: Yeah, you know, I think it’s key to think about your own life and your own experiences and just understand that just you being present in their schools is in many cases enough for students to see, “Oh, you know. The community cares. The village really cares about me.” Just showing up, you know. Even if you don’t really know what you have to offer, we can place you at a school and say, “Hey. We have a volunteer that is willing to help. What do you have going on at your school that you need extra hands on?” Schools are constantly having little programs or things that, you know, they could use additional help. You can help a teacher in the classroom once a week or however frequent you can. There will be something that we can find for you to do.

EE: (laughs)

KS: (laughs) Definitely. Definitely. We can find something.

EE: (laughs) Oh my goodness. That’s great. Kaia, thanks so much for talking with me today.

KS: Thank you.

EE: And I hope to hear much more about what you guys are doing.

KS: Yes. Absolutely. Thanks.

EE: The Little Library at Millennial Park is such a happy site. With its bright yellow exterior, it’s a little hard to look at and not smile. Really. If you haven’t been by, you should check it out. It’s across the street from the Baton Rouge General on Florida Blvd.

This is The Sunshine Bridge. It’s a new show, and if you want to drop a line, it would be wonderful to hear from you. You can send an email to thesunshinebridge@gmail.com. Show music is by Arnav Srivastav. For this episode, I’d like to give a special thanks to Sai and B who always encourage me to keep learning. I’m Elizabeth Eads. See you next time.