A Trauma-Informed Approach to Community Engagement
Chera Kowalski is the assistant to the chief of staff at the Free Library of Philadelphia and a participant in Cohort 1 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries trainings.
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The Journey to Understanding Libraries: A Library Assistant’s Story
Sa-de Brown is a library assistant at Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library and a participant in Cohort 2 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries trainings.
"Life is a journey, not a destination." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Connecting Special Collections and Philadelphia’s Islamic Populations: Starting the Dialogue
Joe Shemtov is a special collections coordinator and primary source specialist and a participant in Cohort 1 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries trainings.Â
McPherson Square Library Photography Exhibit Spotlights Neighborhood Strengths
Tuesday Chalmers is an adult/teen librarian at McPherson Square Library and a member of Cohort 1 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries training. In this post, she explains the project she worked on after attending the workshops.Â
The Leaders We Have Been Waiting For
“We are the leaders we have been waiting for." -Grace Lee Boggs, philosopher and activist
The Free Library of Philadelphia is full of leaders, and so are the neighborhoods in which we are located. To foster collaboration with community members and organizations, we are building staff capacity in two ways:
Skills for Community-Centered Libraries: Learning through Experience
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” — Xun Kuang, philosopher
Imagine trying to learn to knit. Would you learn best by reading a book about knitting? Hearing a friend talk about knitting? Watching an expert knitter? Or learning the basic steps and actually trying to knit?
Skills Training for Community-Centered Libraries: Building Your Library Team
Our first cohort of staff members participating in the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries training recently learned about and explored team roles and dynamics. Staff reflected on their own strengths and what attributes they bring to a team. Are they great at keeping everything running smoothly? Do they enjoy providing in-depth knowledge?Â
Defining Community Engagement and Outreach
The Skills for Community-Centered Libraries initiative — a series of trainings meant to build community engagement capacities among staff — launched on Oct. 2, so it’s a good time for the Free Library of Philadelphia’s community organizing team to share what exactly we mean by community engagement. A common definition is a baseline for discussion at workshops and a way to push people’s thinking.
Introducing Free Library of Philadelphia’s Community-Centered Libraries Initiative
The Aspen Institute’s influential report “Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries” predicts that in the coming years, the most successful public libraries will be the ones with services that prioritize and support local community goals.
