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10:15 AM / Thursday June 12, 2025

21 Oct 2024

Philadelphia native Monique Moore Pryor, Esq. is the first executive director at the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation (FLPF)

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October 21, 2024 Category: Color Of Money Posted by:

The Free Library of Philadelphia Parkway Central branch
Editorial credit: Brian Logan Photography / Shutterstock.com

By Kharisma McIlwaine

Growing up in Philadelphia with a library card was a gift that opened up the whole new world of The Free Library of Philadelphia and all it had to offer.

Today, The Free Library of Philadelphia remains a key component in the Philadelphia community. It grants Philadelphians access not only to a wealth of books and information but also to incredible programs. In August 2023, Monique Moore Pryor, Esq. returned to her Philadelphia hometown and became the first executive director at the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation (FLPF). Pryor spoke with the SUN about her return home, taking on a leadership position with FLPF and the wide variety of programs FLPF has to offer the community.

Before returning to Philadelphia, Pryor was the chief engagement and external affairs officer at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. Pryor shared her experience transitioning back to Philadelphia.

“It was a little scary, I must say initially, in the sense that I raised my family in Northern New Jersey for 22 years. To be able to create community personally and professionally it was a little daunting. Like, oh my goodness, I have to start all over again?” She questioned. “Luckily my parents are still here and there are people here who are leaders in the community who met me in the womb. I don’t remember meeting them, they are uncle this and auntie that, but they’ve been great. Being closer to my parents, my bonus dad and being able to take care of them… I’m a better daughter, a better sister and auntie for moving close and I’ve enjoyed rediscovering and falling back in love with my hometown with my husband as an empty nester.”

In addition to enjoying the opportunity to be closer to family, friends and home, Pryor is seeing a dream come to fruition by embracing her role as the first executive director of FLPF.

“It’s been amazing. I’m a lawyer for background. I was practicing law for over 25 years and then I made my transition into philanthropy and spent most of that career in higher ed at a college that attracted students from marginalized communities. I made many inroads creating pipelines for hiring, but I’ve always said if I can get to them sooner, I know I will have a bigger impact.

So, stepping into this role, I’m fulfilling my wishes and my [goals] in terms of being able to have an impact,” she explained. “The library is in 54 communities with 54 branches. It’s been said that there’s not a library branch that’s more than one to two miles away from a citizen so that’s huge. To be able to say I’m the daughter of two Philadelphia high school teachers and to continue in their footsteps… to see that this has unfolded in the way it has is in divine order.”

Pryor has been hands-on in her efforts to bring additional programming to and throughout the Philadelphia community… a gift not only to the citizens of Philadelphia, but to her as well.

“It’s been great reconnecting with the community. Going into the community is the best part about the branches and that’s really where a lot of the work gets done and how we’re able to enhance what the library provides. If I’m having a bad day, whether it’s personally or back-to-back meetings, I can go into the branches and see the afterschool programs, the tutoring, the culinary literacy learning, and all of that to see the impact of what we’re doing and it puts a big smile on my face.”

FLPF and The Free Library work outside the box as they continue finding new ways to reach the community. Whether it’s chartering buses and giving away banned books to the community during Banned Book Week or cultivating programs like the culinary literacy program, which allows people from all over the world to connect with one another through food and culture.

“The culinary literacy program is a collaboration between us and the Free Library of Philadelphia. A state-of-the-art restaurant kitchen was constructed in the Parkway Central a few years ago, and that’s the main hub of the culinary literacy center. It is a mission to teach adult learners English, in particular our immigrants where English is a second language. There are free classes that happen at Parkway Central and throughout the branches. I must tell you, when you walk in there it smells delicious but it’s free to anyone in the community including people from Philadelphia. Everyone is in there learning together and cooking together so it’s creating community as well as teaching people.”

FLPF works with branches throughout the city to offer a wide array of both adult and youth services programs available to all.

“They have an adult services arm and a youth services arm. The adult services arm helps create jobs and workforce development. We have the business resource and innovation center which is called BRIC which supports individuals looking for jobs as well as entrepreneurs. I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but people can go to Parkway Central and get a free headshot done. So we’re really trying to elevate the amazing things that are done here. We help non profits as well. BRIC, the center also has a resource where nonprofit leaders, small or large, can go into a database, find grants and do research. Staff there that we help the library support is there to help answer your questions at any time.”

She added, “Our youth services program supports the library with their Summer of Wonder program, where they hire high school students and others to help alleviate the summer slide that can happen during the summer break. They tutor students to keep up their reading and other skills as well as math. We have another program where we train in-home daycare providers to teach literacy. We help keep them up to speed and provide resources, whether they are learning toys and other equipment, as well as the necessary training. Those are just a few things we do at the foundation to support and enhance the library services.”

In addition to the incredible programs FLPF offers in partnership with branches throughout the city, they also help provide digital literacy, access to computers and assistance from librarians that allow adults to access their government benefits.

“A statistic in the United States says 80% of adults use the library to access their government benefits. What does that mean? That you have to go on the computer to get your social security, to get your Medicare, your Medicaid. We have state-of-the-art equipment that we have supported, but also, the librarians staffed by the city are trained to help adults navigate the web, in particular our aging population as our world continues to grow and depend on digital access. We believe in digital literacy, health literacy, and financial literacy, which are some of the programs we help support. Investing in our libraries ensures that we all compete on a level playing field.”

To find out more about the invaluable work that The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation offers the community, visit their website, www.freelibraryfoundation.org, and be sure to visit www.freelibrary.org to find out more about the 2,500 programs they put forth each year.

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