What We Do
What We Do
The Yolo County Library Foundation (YCLF) was established in 2016 to support Yolo County Library’s mission to “provide access for all to ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire.”
By funding system-wide resources, YCLF promotes and advances educational, informational, and recreational literary activities and lifelong learning opportunities in our communities.
Funding Priorities
Priority #1: Early Literacy so Children Read for Life
According to the National Commission on Reading, “the single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school.” Despite the significance of this finding, the California Department of Education (2020) reports that only 48% of children in Yolo County read at grade level by 3rd grade.
In an effort to improve early literacy rates, our top funding priority is to provide parents, caregivers and children with access to free reading materials (in both print and digital formats) and literacy training to celebrate and model reading. Numerous studies show that children who enter Kindergarten with early literacy skills are more likely to read at grade level by 3rd grade and graduate from high school.
Our grants strengthen Yolo County Library’s ability to purchase and distribute high quality, age-appropriate books to parents and caregivers to create literacy-rich environments at home. In addition, we provide funding for the Library to purchase age-appropriate digital resources, like the Tumblebook Library, that children and their caregivers can access together 24/7.
To maximize the efficacy of these early literacy resources, Yolo County Library staff use the Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) framework to provide early literacy tips, tools and strategies to educate parents and caregivers on how to share and model early literacy skills with their children so they can read at grade level.
Priority #2: Early Literacy Toolkit
We provide financial support for Yolo County Library to develop an Early Literacy Toolkit that includes print and digital resources for families to prepare their children for success in school.
Priority #3: Summer and Winter Reading Programs
We provide financial support for Yolo County Library’s online registration service that is used for its Summer and Winter Reading Programs. This tool makes it easy for readers of all ages to track the number of books read to qualify for incentives and prizes.
Priority #4: English Language Learning programs
We support the expansion of Yolo County Library’s English conversation clubs, English classes, and the Yolo Reads Adult and Family Literacy Program to all eight branch libraries.
