New Authoritative Award: Laundromat Has Become a New Position of Early Childhood Literacy Education

Recently, the LaundryCares Foundation (LCF), with its groundbreaking Laundromat Reading Space project, was awarded the David M. Rubenstein Prize, the most prestigious award in the Library of Congress’s 2024 Literacy Awards. The laundromat will be pushed into a new stage of early childhood literacy education.

Key Partnerships

Library of Congress & LCF’s Evolution

LCF was founded in 2005 to meet the urgent laundry needs of people affected by Hurricane Katrina and help rebuild communities.
Since then, it has embarked on a journey of deep collaboration with the Clinton Foundation’s early childhood initiative TSTF (Too Small To Fail) and Libraries Without Borders, Committed to providing early literacy education services for young children and their families.

The Educational Potential of Laundromats

“The laundromat connects the community, which is both our slogan and our mission.” Dan Naumann, Executive Vice President of LCF, emphasized that “Providing customers with access to quality early childhood education is important to communities, businesses, and the well-being of children around the world.”

● 2017 Initiative – “Wash Time is Talk Time”:
In 2017, LCF established a long-term partnership with TSTF, and TSTF launched the “Wash Time is Talk Time” resource pack, which covers in-store posters, children’s coloring pages, parents’ cue cards, and social media promotion messages. With The Coin Laundry Association (CLA) 5,000 laundromats and multiple communication platforms across the United States, it is widely disseminated to create language learning opportunities for children and help parents reserve parenting resources.

Scalable Kits Repurpose Laundromat Spaces for Education

In order to further tap the educational potential of laundromats, in 2018, based on the previous results and the recommendations of the first National “Laundry Care” Summit, LCF and TSTF joined hands with the head of the children’s library. The Family Read, Play & Learn kits, an early learning play space model incorporated into the laundromat, were created. The kit comes in three sizes and is adapted to different store Spaces, helping the store to turn an unused corner or viewing area into an early education space, even at the cost of removing some washing machines to make room for children’s books and kits.

Collaboration of Volunteers and Owners

Laundromat owners take the burden of social responsibility and take the initiative to purchase children’s bookshelves, comfortable seats, magnetic drawing boards, velvet boards, and other learning tools and toys. Children can not only take the laundry room books home to build an exclusive family library and cultivate a sense of belonging to books but also enjoy the learning resources in the store. A volunteer group of children’s librarians, early childhood education workers, university teachers, and retired teachers regularly organize wonderful activities in the store.

❑ Expert Insight:
Kira Baker-Doyle, director of the Literacy Center at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, pointed out that laundromats, as a gathering place for community members, are an excellent place to develop a habit and interest in reading. Reading is a social activity influenced by interpersonal relationships and the community environment.

The Satisfaction of Parents

The innovation has proved popular with the community. The parents of the children involved in the project are extremely satisfied. They frankly said that it is a precious window for their children to open early reading and writing activities.

❑ Case Study – Watertown, Wisconsin:
In Watertown, Wisconsin, the Watertown Health Foundation, in conjunction with the Watertown Public Library (WPL), has partnered with two local laundromat owners to seamlessly bring early learning activities to the laundromat. Tina Peerenboom, children’s librarian at WPL, praised these activities for opening up new service paths for children and families in the community and effectively developing children's language and literacy skills.

Strategic Partnerships

Moreover, the laundromat’s informal story-time program over the years has spawned strategic partnerships between business owners and early-literacy providers, including public libraries, and The Innovation Circle online learning group. The Laundry Literacy Coalition (LLC) is a pillar of local collaboration and national success, with its annual summit bringing together the biggest names in the laundry industry, early childhood education, and libraries to discuss development and inspire others to join through awards and recognition.

Conclusion

At the moment, the laundromat industry in the United States is setting off a boom in early childhood education. According to the CLA survey, there are about 30,000 laundromats in the United States, each year an average of 954 families with children under the age of five, about 250 laundromats have engaged in family reading, play, and learning space programs, and this number is continuing to rise. Laundromats have become a solid new position for early childhood literacy education.