With this post and around $20-$50, you can take a super simple art activity to any outreach location. Supplies: Dot markers/bingo daubers Stencils (optional) Markers (optional) Paper Set up: Similar to Art Links, Squart, Art on the Spot, and Cotton Swab Pointillism, this is a perfect outreach activity. Throw your supplies into a small tote and off you go. Find a table somewhere (park, school, etc.), set out your supplies, and make a few samples. We love to take this one out on the ArtCart with a tray for the stencils & markers. Program prep: Just gather your supplies. Go and make some dots!
Tag: outreach
Sailing Into Summer READing 2022
Raising a Sunken Ship Years and years ago when I was a wee volunteer at a public library in Central Florida, I was lucky enough to be a part of a crew that put on a puppet show by the name of “Foghorn Follies“. They brought me on board as a hand in the show. Little did I know, but one day, when I raised anchor and sailed off to become a librarian, I’d once more sound the foghorn and gather unsuspecting audiences for the corniest puppet show this side of the St. John’s River. But first, Atlantis! Years ago, like, 40 of them, there was a Six Flags Great Adventure park in Florida called “Atlantis”. It was here that the Kiddie Kingdom featured a King’s Sandbox and where the Foghorn Follies show was moored. While the show only lasted two seasons, a librarian fell in love with the show,…
Building Better Outreach #PLA2022
I came into my current position about 4 months with a goal to restart and revive youth outreach programs. One of the first PLA programs of the day was Clear and Kind: Boundaries in Outreach Work presented by Kate Morgan of King County Library System and Rachel Beckman of Sno-Isle Libraries.
Serving Expectant Parents & Families with Newborns From Where We Are Today
It is important that expectant parents and those with newborns know they are welcome at the library, even as pandemic precautions persist. Luckily, there is someone there to help them – YOU! Acknowledging them with a simple “hello” can be a high point of their day, especially if they are feeling overwhelmed. A sympathetic “some days are like that!” may lower the pressure when they are dealing with a fussy child. Life in the library is beginning to look more familiar as things begin to “open up more.”. There are still precautions to take to make sure everyone stays safe and healthy until this pandemic is over. Keeping this is mind may have an impact on your library’s ability to do in-person programming and outreach for families with infants since they are at a higher risk. Programs may be offered as a series, once a month or quarterly. Keep your…
Toolkit: New Americans
The Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee is devoted to creating vibrant, dynamic toolkits that provide ALSC members with up-to-date resources for working with traditionally marginalized populations. Each section of these toolkits will provide professional and leisure reading recommendations, support for programming, and materials for families. As dynamic documents, these pages will continue to grow and develop as we find new resources, share our experiences, and continue to learn. The focus of this year’s toolkit is on serving children and their caregivers who are new to America. There are approximately 44 million people living in America who were born in different countries. People identifying as new Americans may fall into many categories, some of which may be: refugee, asylum seekers, migrants, or immigrants. As our understanding of different needs increases, libraries are recognizing an important role in supporting new American communities. These supports may include specialized resources,…
Serving Underserved Communities: EDI in Action
This year, the Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers Committee transitioned our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) goal. We started with providing authentic resources, then moved to empowering library (and library adjacent) staff to hone, develop, and take action on their advocacy skills. Above all, we’re providing support and different ways to interact with our resources, like presentations, chats, and our monthly blog posts. Over the past 18 months, we developed vibrant toolkits to help connect library communities with resources for different underserved populations.
Overwhelmed by: Outreach to Migrant Communities
Outreach to underserved communities is an overwhelming endeavor. Our committee does not want to make it look easy because it truly is not. However, we truly believe that all library staff can do this type of work with the right tools and support. This is why one of our focuses this year is to bridge the gap between tangible resources (like our existing toolkits) and how to get started. Melody Leung and Marika Jeffrey wrote an article in this summer’s issue of Children and Libraries with some guiding questions to help evaluate your community, develop fruitful partnerships, and implement programs and outreach with specific communities in mind. Guiding questions can be helpful but specific examples might help bring those concepts to life. Here is a specific example about reaching out to a migrant community: Getting Started Four years ago, I started working in a rural community in Washington State. To…
New Toolkit to Address Accessibility to Technology
The Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee is devoting the 2020-2021 calendar year to creating a vibrant, dynamic toolkit that provides ALSC members with up-to-date resources for working with marginalized populations. Each toolkit page will provide professional and leisure reading recommendations, support for programming, and materials for families. As dynamic documents, these pages will continue to grow and develop as we find new resources, share our experiences, and continue to learn. The LSCUTC committee welcomed a collaboration with ALSC’s Children and Technology Committee, who created this month’s toolkit. February’s Toolkit focuses on accessibility to technology and its impact on children. With the onset of COVID-19, gaps in the digital divide became chasms. The inequities that technology – or lack thereof – created became impossible to ignore. When librarians transitioned to providing online programming, it became all the more apparent that large swaths of children were missing out…