Founding Story
Turning the Page was founded in Washington, DC. in January 1998 by a group of young professionals. Motivated by the visible needs of under-served Washington, DC. Public School students and intent to positively impact the community, Turning the Page founders sought to increase educational outcomes for these students and their families.
After visiting schools and talking with teachers, librarians, parents, local and national education and community groups, the founders consistently heard that 1) more supports were needed for parents to be involved in these schools and 2) that access to learning materials in the home and in school could be improved. Early on, trust and access became the two main principles of Turning the Page’s emerging work.
From that time, Turning the Page’s vision has unfolded into an organization making a difference in the lives of students, parents, and teachers.
Here are some key milestones.
We incorporated in January 1998 as Turning the Page (TTP).
We held our first fundraiser April 1998 at Buffalo Billiards, a Dupont Circle bar, restaurant and pool-hall. We raised $1,000, which we used to purchase books for Shadd Elementary School in SE Washington, DC.
The Philip Graham Fund, under then-chair Katharine Graham, awarded TTP our first grant: $5,000 to develop our first program, “Community Nights at the Library”. Delivered to our new PO Box, this was an exciting development! As we now near our 1,000th Community Night since the program’s inception in 1999, we remain grateful for this initial trust of the community.
We also developed key partnerships that we have sustained through the years. Reading is Fundamental provided us with funds to purchase high-quality children’s books for their home, as part of the Community Nights incentive. The DC Public Library also shared their resources with participating TTP families.
In late 1999, Hexagon, an all-volunteer political satire theatre group, decided to make TTP the beneficiary of its spring 2000 shows’ profit, resulting in a $50,000 award.
In July 2000, Jason King left his position at Krooth & Altman law firm to lead TTP full-time. Over the next three years, we gained significant momentum.
In June 2001, Politics & Prose held a book sale to benefit TTP. The following year we launched our first Carpe Librum book sale.
By fall 2001, we started our partnership with AmeriCorps*VISTA, which is instrumental to our program sustainability.
In 2002, together with The Phillips Collection, we were awarded a national leadership grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which enabled us to create and implement high-quality family programs using the art of Jacob Lawrence and other works at the museum.
By fall, TTP earned a four-year, $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to deepen and expand our family engagement initiatives.
In 2005, TTP expanded its school community leadership program further, developing parent leadership programs, which combined training and support to parent leaders as they established parent-teacher organizations and school improvement projects.
In 2009, the District Women’s Bar Association named TTP founders Jason King, Doran Flowers, and Tina Hsu “Stars of the Bar” for their “exceptional contributions to the community.
In 2015, TTP expanded to include programming in Chicago’s North Lawndale community, partnering with four schools and offering the same range of programs as in DC
In May 2019, TTP Chicago held the first Summer Resource Festival after the spring Parent Leadership Conference
In March 2020, Turning the Page pivots all of their in-person programming into virtual programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to support parents and families during remote learning
Since 1998…
TTP has engaged over 7,000 families, held more than 1,000 Community Nights, distributed more than 125,000 books, taken families on over 100 Summer Learning Trips, and has trained and supported more than 200 parents to become successful change makers in their schools and communities.
We have partnered with a plethora of organizations to make learning resources more accessible to the school communities we serve every day.
QUICK FACTS
- Turning the Page incorporated in January 1998
- Our first grant came from the Philip Graham Fund in the amount of $5,000
- In 2001 we started our partnership with AmeriCorps*VISTA
- In 2002 we launched our first Carpe Librum book sale
- In 2002, Turning the Page earned a four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education totaling $1.4 million
- In 2015, TTP expanded to include programming in Chicago’s North Lawndale community
- Turning the Page has distributed upwards of 120,000 books to build home libraries for DCPS and CPS families