Organization background
The PWLF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that raises funds to support the needs of the PWPL not covered by taxes and helps to maintain its viability for future generations. Established in 1989 by four members of the Port Washington community, the Foundation has since given the library more than $3,000,000 in private funds for additional programming, advanced technology, new initiatives, and upgrades of the library building and grounds. The Foundation is separate and distinct from other support organizations, including Friends of the Library. The PWPL was founded in 1892 as a cooperative book club, and has evolved into a learning center for the whole community. The PWPL now offers a year-round schedule of cultural and educational events, which draw over 32,000 visitors each month. The PWPL is open 70 hours per week, 7 days a week to better respond to people’s changing requirements for education, information, culture, recreation, and personal advancement. Promoting a culture of literacy and learning for all ages and abilities is its main goal.

Project background
When people with disabilities turn 21, they “age-out” of the state-funded education system. Often at that point, their intellect is no longer challenged and many people with disabilities have the potential to regress. Federal, state and private not-for-profit groups focus on teaching life and vocational skills. Expectations regarding literacy for people with IDD have been slow to change. Enhancing quality of life through shared literature is not beyond the reach of persons with IDD. They have the capacity to grow and develop beyond the age of 21, and this growth needs to be encouraged for them to achieve greater independence, confidence, job readiness, and enjoyment of life. Books for Dessert was founded in 2003, with the purpose of making the riches of the PWPL accessible to individuals with IDD by sharing the joys of reading in a relaxed social and supportive environment. The PWPL facilitates several other book clubs, but Books for Dessert is structured to serve the unique needs of the IDD population of Port Washington and the surrounding communities.

Project description

The Port Washington Public Library (PWPL) Books for Dessert Program is an Award Winning program for adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). The goal of our Books for Dessert program is to foster a love and a lifelong experience of literature for all people, including those with IDD, as well as to improve literacy in a comfortable and safe setting. The Books for Dessert clubs are unique in that they are very academic and led by a teacher with a Masters Degree in Education and several years of experience working with individuals with IDD. The club provides consistency, meeting every week except in the summer, with more than half of its members having participated for over ten years. We've had the same book club leaders since 2004, providing a stable environment. Other organizations that form book clubs for people with disabilities are much more social in nature, volunteer based, not academic or consistent and often not long term.

The objective of our book clubs is for the members to read printed materials and form opinions about a variety of literary and informational texts. The instructor helps them relate their opinions to events, other books, films, issues and experiences. The members participate in reading response activities and apply the lesson learned from a book, or other print media, to a real life situation. The members compare and contrast books read during the year, and take part in general discussions.

In 2019, GKF will pick up part of the cost of running the Books for Dessert program.