Agora Mobile Library

Announcing the Agora Mobile Library—Bringing Books to Agora Families

Even in a thriving world of cyber education, there will always be a need for physical copies of books, and with literacy consistently at the forefront of all it does, Agora is excited to announce a new program called the Agora Mobile Library. Thanks to a grant from the Ready to Learn program, which supports the development of digital education, Agora has purchased 18,000 books to be circulated to students across Pennsylvania.

To ensure the success of the Mobile Library, Agora is using four regional literacy outreach specialists. With the help of Agora’s family coaches, the goal of getting books into the hands of every student at Agora becomes attainable. Each regionally located Agora family coach will receive two crates of books to distribute to their families. Family coaches were joined by other Agora leaders and volunteers over three days and worked with literacy specialists to sort through these books to ensure that each student is getting materials that are effective for learning and improving literacy.

“Many Agora students live in rural areas, where they may either lack proper transportation to a library or have no library at all in their area,” said Lauren Wilson, Literacy Coordinator at Agora. “The family coach program is ideal for distributing books and creating conversations and social interactions. We’re thankful for the family coaches, and you can feel their excitement about this program.”

The Mobile Library will always travel with family coaches, so that they’re able to lend out books during any face-to-face interactions with students. These could include Agora Days Out, meet and greets with local families or any other in-person activity where students will be present. The program also gives students the chance to get more comfortable being face-to-face with family coaches during book sign-outs.

Once students have begun to receive their books, family coaches will not always need to be present, and students can trade books with one another at will. Not only does this improve literacy, but it improves sociability and gives students an opportunity to connect through stories that they enjoy.

“Literacy is a powerful tool for human connectedness. It is how we learn from the past to make our futures better,” said Lauren.

Alongside the family coaches, all teachers and Agora staff are encouraged to participate. This is a schoolwide initiative that all staff will be promoting and engaging with.

“We want to embrace family literacy, too. With greater outreach to parents, we can help them develop a love of reading alongside their children. This can start conversations with the whole family and create better connectedness within the home,” said Susan Detwiler, Family Coach Coordinator at Agora. “We are walking in their doors with positivity. Family coaches are excited to work not just with students but to rally around both the students and their families.”

Thanks to the help from Ready to Learn, Agora is excited to launch this program in the upcoming 2022-2023 school year.