Libraries Without Borders US
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Beautiful Laundrette Owner Spotlight
In 2015, Libraries Without Borders US created the Wash and Learn Initiative (WALI) to provide urban communities with access to digital devices, educational services, and health information. Through these programs, we transformed laundromats across the U.S. into resource centers where librarians, community-based organizations, and small businesses could promote literacy, learning, and engagement. Now, WALI has spread to numerous parts of the country, including San Antonio, Baltimore, Oakland, and Saint Paul.
LWB US recently expanded the Wash and Learn Initiative to Beautiful Laundrette, a newly opened laundromat in Saint Paul, Minnesota. We spoke with the owner, Laurel Gamm, who shared her perspective on the WALI model from its inception to future programming.
Read on to learn about the process of bringing pop-up learning hubs to life as told by a WALI laundromat owner.
Kat Choi: How did you and LWB US connect?
Laurel Gamm: I reached out to St. Paul Public Libraries in September 2020 with a request for help to create a “library” space, and books in Spanish, Hmong and Somali. It was through Phasoua Vang that I got in touch with Adam at LWB US and the conversation began! As it happens, I knew Ed (LWB US Manufactured Housing Project Coordinator) from my previous work in healthcare doing mobile outreach to people experiencing homelessness. It was great to reconnect with him!
We had to suspend WALI and pursue alternative methods of serving our community. Approaching future programs made us really think critically about the work we were doing.
K: What motivated you to implement WALI programming in your laundromat?
L: It’s the reason I considered purchasing a laundromat! Not WALI per se, but the realization that laundromats are community spaces. They’re designed for connection and trust building as they are often unattended and self service. People look out for each other at a laundromat, so there’s a cool culture of community that is built in. People have downtime at a laundromat and there are opportunities to meet needs other than a clean safe space to do a mundane, necessary task (the latter being my first priority!). I knew about the Coin Laundry Association’s focus on STEM for children, and appreciated that there may be some institutional support for broadening the purpose of laundromats, so when I discovered LWB, it was a dream come true! I’m a natural ally given I worked for Doctors Without Borders, too.
How were we trying to solve the deeper issues? How were we connecting individuals and families to the resources they truly needed?
K: How is WALI’s implementation meeting the specific needs of the St. Paul community?
L: We’re just getting our feet wet here. We launched a survey and received over 200 responses. We tried to tailor our programming to meet people’s perceived needs. Looking at 3 different age demographics, we decided to implement programming for children, teens and adults, focusing on the need areas of health in the broadest sense of the word (including housing for example), education and legal help.
K: What will programming look like at Beautiful Laundrette?
L: We’re just getting our feet wet here. We launched a survey and received over 200 responses. We tried to tailor our programming to meet people’s perceived needs. Looking at 3 different age demographics, we decided to implement programming for children, teens and adults, focusing on the need areas of health in the broadest sense of the word (including housing for example), education and legal help.
One student told me how she was able to improve her grades at school because she no longer had to try and complete her schoolwork on her phone.
K: What has been the response of the community thus far? Any stories that resonate?
L: Multiple families have been helped through our housing program, including an employee of Beautiful Laundrette! We’ve received many comments of gratitude and interest as we’ve headed down this road. Just having multiple customers offer to bring salads to the celebration is a tiny but significant example of people’s sense of belonging here.
Children read the books and take them home so we continually need to replenish our stock.People are grateful and slowly but surely programs will build. We plan to offer “Tech Office Hours” soon so that we can fully utilize our new technology, supported by LWB. Thanks again for everything!
To learn more about this project and our programs in Saint Paul, reach out to Wash and Learn Initiative Project Associate Katrina Mendoza at katrina@librarieswithoutborders.us.
For more information on upcoming programming and services at Beautiful Laundrette, visit beautifullaundrette.com.