West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC)  received a $100,000 grant for its Open Books Open Minds Program.  They provide public elementary school children in West Philadelphia with library and literacy enrichment activities to help prepare them for school success and places volunteers in classrooms to work with individual students on reading and writing skills.  WePAC’s Open Books Open Minds program identified that nearly 8,000 children in West Philadelphia’s public elementary schools had no, or limited, library access.  The project funding supported renovating and re-opening school libraries and staffing them with  trained volunteers.