Victoria Pilate, Ph.D.
Torment of Thirst Foundation
-- Plans for Future --
|
The more often students
visit libraries on their own,
the better their test
scores.
Better stocked libraries
are associated with
higher academic
achievement.
Schools with high
numbers of books,
magazines had better test
scores.
--Library Research
Service studies
Nearly 15 percent of
Florida school districts
had school libraries in
which 40 percent or more
of books were pre 1980s
(e.g., more than 20 years
old). (Orlando Sentinel
November 10, 2002)
85 percent of the
incarcerated juvenile
offenders have reading
problems.
77 percent of 12th
graders read below the
basic reading level.
93 percent of 10th
graders in reservation
school systems never
read a single book
outside the classroom.
U.S. literacy rates are just
above average for a
developed nation.
Nearly half of U.S. citizens
scored in the lowest
levels of reading.
At the end of calendar year 2005, I recognized some
reorganization and redefinition of goals was needed.
Although I had been doing this volunteer work for four
years, I had no clear mission nor goals.
I've decided to target the following areas:
1. Literacy
2. Education and childhood enrichment
3. Life and work skills preparation.
To meet the mission of life and work skills preparation, I plan
to work on eliminating barriers to employment. In particular,
I was impressed and inspired by the fare card recycling
program of San Francisco’s BART system. Research has
found that one of the complicating, frustrating aspect of
employment programs for poor teens and adults is the lack
of affordable transportation to work. With BART's recycling
program, low value cards of a few cents are combined and
the new fare cards are provided to the homeless to
commute to work. Can such a program work with
Washington, DC, Metro fare cards to help disadvantaged
teens and the homeless afford to commute to work?
In addition, I was inspired by an organization of flight
attendants who transport medical supplies, school kits and
hygiene supplies to children in developing countries.
Tragically, children go without education because of the
relatively high costs of school fees and school supplies. My
hope is to redirect unused convention and business travel
supplies of donors to children in developing countries.
Children in Africa beg for pencils from foreign travelers to
go to school. Girls in some parts of Africa are forced to trade
sex for a bar of soap or food. Let's do something about it.
How I Do It
For book donations, I rely heavily on other organizations.
For example, the Friends of the Arlington County Library
gives away books that are not sold during their semiannual
book sales. Their generosity enables me to send large
shipments to prisoner literacy organizations and similar
nonprofits as well as to foreign libraries and schools. Other
individuals who attend the book giveaways support nursing
homes and veterans hospitals. One woman sends books to
Slovakia.
However, the juggernaut of the help I receive comes from
the Book Thing of Baltimore whose mission is to give away
free books. Its work enables me to get free adult and
children's books for the recipient organizations. I could not
do the work I do without the existence of the Book Thing.
How I do the remainder of the work for TTF is a penny-
pinching secret I reveal in my upcoming book on financial
management for the newly independent.
What's Planned for FY 2007
FY 07 (the fifth year of TTF) is expected to hold many new
opportunities and challenges. I plan to continue with the
existing projects with School on Wheels, Developments in
Literacy, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and
the Women's Prison Book Project.
I've very excited about the new opportunity to partner with
existing organizations to sponsor math races and geography
bees. More information on the math races and the
geography bee will be posted on this website.
I'm also about to embark on a new venture with an overseas
organization. More information on this will be posted
towards the end of the year.
