{"id":14482,"date":"2016-11-23T12:01:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T17:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=14482"},"modified":"2016-11-23T09:39:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T14:39:11","slug":"nurturing-empathy-through-multicultural-youth-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/nurturing-empathy-through-multicultural-youth-programming\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurturing Empathy through Multicultural Youth Programming"},"content":{"rendered":"

The children librarian\u2019s role has never been more critical than it is right now.\u00a0 Today, we are seeing increased potential for ethnic intolerance, and racial tensions encouraged by a climate that is categorically contrary to the library profession\u2019s fundamental values, specifically diversity, equity and inclusion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Youth services librarians play a crucial role in crafting services and culturally-inclusive programming that create a safe and welcoming environment for children and families of all cultural backgrounds, which in turn ameliorates confusion and fears and aids in dispelling ignorance.\u00a0 Maya Angelou<\/a> spoke to these ideals when she observed, \u201cIf everybody knows something about the African heritage, the African gift\u2026there\u2019s a possibility that [strangers or enemies] might become friends\u201d. Hence, through multicultural literacy, we can aid in eradicating hate, irrespective of the culture being examined.<\/p>\n

Culturally-inclusive programming needs to go beyond annual events, and instead needs to be incorporated within regularly scheduled children\u2019s programming. Such offerings should focus on nurturing empathy as well as \u2018understanding of the self and others\u2019.<\/p>\n

I encourage all youth services librarians to revisit and draw inspiration from ALSC\u2019s Competencies<\/a>, particularly Competency I: Commitment to Client Group<\/a>. They are more relevant right now than probably at any other time during our lifetime.\u00a0 Already ALSC has disseminated an excellent resource list<\/a>. I would ask you to also consider Mem Fox\u2019s \u201cWhoever You Are\u201d as a springboard for meaningful conversation on how we are different on the surface, but profoundly alike in what matters most, our humanity.<\/p>\n

ALSC, IFLA<\/a> and UNESCO<\/a> share a common ideal that, \u201cRespect for the diversity of cultures, tolerance, dialogue and cooperation, in a climate of mutual trust and understanding are among\u00a0the best\u00a0guarantees of international peace and security.\u201d\u00a0 Children hold the ultimate answers, thus, it is up to us to give them the guidance they will need to bring about a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n

******************************************************************************************************<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo courtesy of Atenas De La Cruz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today’s Guest Blogger is Marianne Rodriguez. Marianne was born in the town of Cidra, Puerto Rico, the town of eternal springtime, in the east central mountains of Puerto Rico \u2013 the same town as Pura Belpr\u00e9!\u00a0 Immigrating to Florida as a young adult, Marianne has dedicated her professional career to public librarianship, and championing the information needs of immigrant families in Central Florida libraries as well as creating and promoting services to the Hispanic community through a variety of ongoing youth services programming.\u00a0 The focus of her MLIS degree studies was multicultural youth services, and inspired her to explore how librarians can play an active role in human rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at\u00a0alscblog@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The children librarian\u2019s role has never been more critical than it is right now.\u00a0 Today, we are seeing increased potential for ethnic intolerance, and racial tensions encouraged by a climate that is categorically contrary to the library profession\u2019s fundamental values, specifically diversity, equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[61,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diversity","category-guest-blogger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}