In last week’s post on working with teens who may be at risk we started to discuss what barriers people may face in working with teens who may be at risk as well as some examples of work people are doing in their libraries.
This week in discussion related to working with teens who may be at risk, let’s talk about successes that people have had with working with teens who may be at risk. Thinking about what you’ve read related to this topic, and what you’ve been able to accomplish, let us know:
- A success you’ve had in your library implementing YALSA Futures Report related ideas that helped make change in your work with and for teens who may be at risk
- What you think helped to make that success possible
- Ideas and suggestions you have for others who are also working with teens who may be at risk
- Questions you have about implementing some of the ideas in your work with and for teens who may be at risk
Here is the first post in this series if you would like to be part of the discussion and share some of your thoughts. Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section and feel free to comment/question on anyone else’s. Feel free to reach out directly to me if you have any questions about any of the posts jsnow@bpl.org
Here at my library we have a partnership with the agency that serves teens in juvenile detention centers and there are 7 librarians that rotate each month to provide library services and programs to teens in the detention centers. The partnership didn’t happen overnight, it took some time to happen as well as become as streamlined as it is now. Each month we go to each of the 8 units and provide book requests as well as bring in and booktalk books, we provide library card signups and talk about the branches that provide teen services to try and connect teens to those services when they leave. Also, each month we participate in re-entry panels with the teens that are transitioning back into the community and the library is there each month along with other organizations to talk about resources, programs and services that may be helpful. The program is successful in many ways. The number of books that are requested through the program each month is very high, teens do use the libraries when they leave the detention centers and they are able to connect with the librarians in the teen serviced branches as they have gotten to know the library through the program. What are some other successes people have had in their libraries?