A Portrait of Sonoma: Sonoma County Human Development Report /Un Retrato Del Condado De Sonoma (2014) is a county wide assessment of human development that includes health, access to knowledge, and living standards. This report documented that not all county residents have access to the same opportunities to meet their full potential, and that significant health, education and income disparities exist between Roseland and Southwest Santa Rosa and the East side of Highway 101. Residents in this area have one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the county, with almost half of its adult population without a high school diploma.
Santa Rosa welcomed Roseland into its city in 2017 with a vision and goal of creating services and infrastructure at parity with the rest of the City. We recognize that in order to achieve this goal, we must work together in strategic, thoughtful, and engaging ways.
We recognize that a key component to empowering a community in the achievement of its peak potential is a fully resourced, modern Library.
Furthermore, a library in Roseland will serve as a needed community hub, an information and resource center.
Here are just Some of the positive proven impacts of a community library:
- Libraries create improved economic prospects and an enhanced quality of life, while generating an annual economic impact of nearly four times the amount invested in their operations.
- Libraries, which champion, promote, and reflect important democratic values, are a part of the community’s political life.
- Libraries provide important business resources, especially for small local businesses.
- Libraries help to ensure that non-English speakers see themselves represented in their communities and they provide immigrants with helpful information about, and opportunities to connect with, their new communities.
- Free tutoring, homework help programs, and summer reading programs for kids and teens help bridge the economic divide that impacts students’ academic performance and serve as a place to study as well as safe harbors in violent and under-resourced neighborhoods
And we’re proving it in Roseland:
- Early literacy support and having books readily available in the home are among the biggest indicators of future school success. The Roseland Community Library is a trusted educational support for families in the area. The items most checked out by the community are books for babies and toddlers in Spanish and the weekly preschool storytimes reach over 3000 Roseland residents annually.
- The Roseland Community Library provides daily access to computers, printers, and Wi-Fi for all ages, creating equity in an area lacking technology infrastructure. The bilingual digital literacy support provided by the Library is invaluable to the success of Roseland residents.
- The majority of registered users for the Roseland Library are children and teens. Over 500 children would be without library services and resources if the Roseland Community Library did not exist.
Therefore we join together to commit to partnering with the Roseland community and the City of Santa Rosa to identify the opportunities and assets on which to build a permanent Roseland Community Library.