For more than two decades, The Simple Way has been strong in its mission to help Kensington residents. Located on the corner of Potter and East Westmoreland streets, the nonprofit responded to the pandemic by providing food for residents, said the organization’s executive director, Ed Esquivel.
“Primarily we’ve been doing food bank stuff since the pandemic,” he said. “Suddenly, everyone needed food. So this whole space was different. It was full of fridges. You’d have a line going down the sidewalk of folks.”
Esquivel explained there are a lot of organizations that offered food services in the area over the last few years. Looking for a new niche to help residents, he explained, the group landed on a new idea: a library.
“There are just so many other needs we have,” he said. “The literacy rate in the neighborhood is catastrophic. It’s, like, less than 50% of the adult residents can read past the fifth-grade level, so it’s a huge issue that our folks are up against.”
The latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows that over 50% of adults in Philadelphia read and comprehend at or below a fifth-grade level, and would require further education or training to enter the workforce. And, almost 30% of Pennsylvania’s working-age adults don’t have the basic literacy skills needed for work, family or community life.
Filling safety, literacy gaps
The Simple Library opened a little over two months ago, Esquivel said. The space is open from 12 to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays for children and their families to come in.
“The kids and families can come in and check out books,” he said. “They can read books here if they want to. And then there’s other books that are actually totally free. So any in those piles, if you want them, you can grab them and keep them. They’re yours forever.”
Esquivel said the organization has gotten lots of community support for book donations. Organizations like Tree House Books, which provides free books for children and families in North Philly, and individual donations have provided new books – which Esquivel said is an exciting part of the library.
“We really wanted to get new things,” he said. “A lot of our folks that we work with here, they’re used to seeing used things and are used to seeing things that are beat up. We wanted them to have something that was exciting. And it’s nothing like seeing a 10-year-old look and be like, ‘Wait, I can get two of these!?!’ It’s exciting. It’s new. It’s fresh.”
The library is an exciting opportunity to cater to different interests and reading levels, said Katie Jo Brotherton, who came up with and helped execute the library concept.
“The goal with reading is you always want people to find what they enjoy,” she said. “That is the most difficult part about getting someone excited about reading. Because there’s so many things you can read about. Do you like to read about sharks? Do you like stories that are mystery?”
She explained it is important for resources like books to be widely available in all communities.
“I just think books should be available to anyone, no matter where you are,” she said. “Let’s have as many possible resources for kids and adults to get in contact with books as much as they can.”
The need is clear in Kensington, where the two area libraries – Richmond Library and McPherson Square Library – are currently closed. McPherson Square is amidst a redesign, with no clear date for when it will reopen.
Esquivel said that, beyond the closures, there are also safety concerns when accessing McPherson Square, which is the closest library.
“We have a lot of families that we’ve talked to here, who tell us that, even if [that library] is open, getting to here from there is a short journey, but it’s scary,” he said. “And the parents say, ‘I’m not going down there, and I don’t want my kids to just walk down there either from this location.’ So we didn’t want them to lose out on reading just because of that.”
Esquivel said The Simple Library is not meant as competition or critique of the other libraries, but as another outlet for learning and literacy while they overcome their safety and closure issues.
Dominic Ferri has lived in Kensington since 1995. He explained he used to go to the other libraries in the area, but doesn’t always feel safe doing so now.
“I used to go to McPherson Park over on F Street and Indiana Avenue, but then that park got really, really bad,” he said.
Ferri now enjoys reading at The Simple Library. He said he sees it as a vital community resource.
“The library keeps the kids out of trouble, because otherwise a lot of these kids are probably running around the streets and stuff,” he said.
Looking ahead
While the library is currently open Wednesdays from 12 to 3 p.m., Brotherton said there are plans to extend the hours, and programming, during the school year.
“Once school starts, we’ll be open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” she said. “That’s when we’ll do some reading clubs. We’ll also be doing toddler time on Mondays, so people can bring their toddlers over and read a story.”
She explained the team is still deciding on hours for this programming and openings.
There are also plans for senior and adult book clubs, she said, as well as hours allotted specifically for children who are homeschooled or in virtual school.
In addition, Brotherton said, there will be children’s book clubs throughout the school year.
“When school starts, I’ll run a third- and fourth-grade book club and do tutoring and homework help,” she said.
There will also be sixth- through eighth-grade book clubs at the library.
She said the library fills a gap in the current moment, when funding — at the federal and state level — is uncertain.
“Everything is around funding,” she said. “It’s just the crux of everything. And we get this beautiful opportunity to be a nonprofit and not tied up in government funding. But when you’re tied up in government funding and you have a passion and that’s what’s keeping your passion from happening, that you can’t keep your doors open, that must be so frustrating.”
To keep updated on upcoming events and the library’s hours, you can follow their Instagram.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
