Earlier this year, Success Won’t Wait received a call from Salesianum School, a prestigious college prep school for boys, located here in Wilmington, Delaware. The school was renovating its library and generously offered books, furniture, and shelving for Success Won’t Wait literacy projects. Success Won’t Wait co-founder Vincenza Carrieri-Russo personally oversaw the project and even hand-picked hundreds of like-new books. We knew that this donation was special, due to the extremely high quality of the books, and we have been searching for just the right schools to receive them.

This week, we found the perfect solution!

Partnering once again with Treasures for Teachers, Success Won’t Wait donated over 500 hardcover, like-new books to high schools in beleagured School District of Philadelphia.

Why did we choose Philadelphia?

In January 2014, Philadelphia Magazine published Philadelphia’s School Crisis: A City On The Brink . Author Patricia Kerkstra says, “The failings go way beyond the typical struggles of a big urban district. In December [2013], the latest national assessment found that just 14 percent of Philadelphia fourth-graders were proficient or better at reading, compared to 26 percent in other big cities and 34 percent nationally. Of the 25 largest U.S. cities, Philadelphia ranks 22nd in college degree attainment. Graduates of the School District of Philadelphia are particularly bad off; only about 10 percent of district alums go on to get degrees.”

Although the situation in nearby Philadelphia is dire, we believe that these books are a step in the right direction!

Literacy statistics rank access to reading materials as one of the most important predictors of a child’s future reading success. According to Sanford Newman in his book American’s Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy, “The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print. Communities ranking high in achievement tests have several factors in common: an abundance of books in public libraries, easy access to books in the community at large and a large number of textbooks per student.”

Additional book donations for Philadelphia High Schools are planned for 2015.

Founded in 2002, Success Won’t Wait, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit literacy organization based in Wilmington, Delaware. Want to learn more about Success Won’t Wait’s literacy projects, how to donate used books, or volunteer your time? Click on the About Us tab to learn more.

Read now, because success won’t wait!