How it All Began
February is Women's History Month. Every February, the San Francisco National Organization for Women Education Fund sponsors a Women's Herstory poster and essay contest for elementary school students.
Lessons Learned in the San Francisco Schools
CES Board Member Dawn Lopshire served as a judge for one of these contests. During her conversations with teachers, she learned there were few, if any books about women and people of color in the San Francisco public schools.
What she found most appalling about this situation is that girls comprise over half of the school district's students, and students of color far outnumber white students.
Why Does this Matter?
We know that role models and mentors show young people what is possible for them to achieve. Unfortunately, girls and minority students are rarely informed about the contributions women and people of color have made to the world at large. These people are usually missing from textbooks and other teaching materials.
Taking Action - Dawn went to work:
- with teachers to identify appropriate texts featuring women and people of color
- arranging for donations of books
- with the school district's administration to place donated books in school libraries
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You Can Help!
As with all CES programs, 100% of the money raised for the Diversity Book Program goes directly to purchasing books and placing them in public school libraries. A contribution of $25 will purchase at least two books for this program. Those books will teach girls and minority students what others like them have done, and inspire them to make their own mark on the world.
Program Goals
Since 1997, The Center has participated in Project Read, an effort to boost reading skills for first-and second-graders in Pleasant Hill, California. The Center purchased five age-appropriate reading programs and donated them to schools. These materials supplement the work of volunteer tutors.
Related Projects
The Center also donated study kits about the women's suffrage movement to elementary schools, for use in social studies programs. Project Read has placed 6 sets of the Winning a Voice curriculum in Contra Costa County schools. This program teaches children about women's struggle for the right to vote.
How Can You Help?
For the price of a concert ticket, you can give a child the reading skills they will use for a lifetime. Like all of The Center's programs, 100% of the funds raised go directly to the project. That's a deal too good to pass up!
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A friend of The Center told us about the urgent need for books at the Cameron Elementary School near the Navajo Nation in Arizona. Right away, we started collecting books and money, making sure to honor requests for specific science and literature texts. Our goal was to help provide these children with a school library that includes a broad range of subjects and ideas.
Today, the 485 titles contributed by The Center represent more than a third of all the books in the library. More than that, they represent a world of opportunity for children who deserve it.
