I want to thank those of you who spent Monday and Wednesday mornings participating in Whole person Librarianship training with open hearts and open minds. I was very proud to be a member of your team- your contributions to the conversation were smart and thoughtful and your compassion was fully on display! Hopefully it turned out to be thought provoking and useful to both your work and personal lives.
These sessions are just the beginning of a long term focus on interacting with people in need. Before we talk about next steps, I want to make sure that all the staff members who signed up to watch the recordings of this week's training do so in a timely manner. So if you're signed up to watch the recordings, your supervisor will schedule time for you to finish viewing the training by Friday, June 17th. Once everyone has received the same initial information, we can move forward.
For those of you who plan to watch the recordings, here is the link to a very short survey. Please help us learn more about how we can support your work going forward.
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Thanks to the staff at Simmons, especially the maintenance staff, who are dealing with a broken drain outside Simmons during the rainiest spring I can remember. We have architects looking at how we can get the terrace on that building fixed once and for all!
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In case you don't read the board packet, here's a story you don't want to miss that I included in our department reports this month:
As we get bogged down in the day-to-day, some of us sometimes lose perspective on how much we mean to the people in our community and how much we believe in the work we do. This week, I was deeply moved when a former board member reached out to me with this request:
“As you may be aware, there are now two Afghan families resettled in Kenosha (from among the thousands of Afghans evacuated early last fall in the wake of the Taliban’s abrupt takeover of the country).
My wife and I are part of one of the two Kenosha teams . We are supporting a family of 8 – dad, mom and 6 kids (all under age 10). None speaks any English (though all are participating in one or more educational venues that will help them learn English). Their native language is Pashto. Since they have no pre-existing contacts in this country and no resources, except for those provided initially by the US government, basic public benefit supports (FoodShare, W-2, BadgerCare, etc.) and those resources our support team has rustled up, they are pretty vulnerable and will remain so for quite a while. However, they are likable and resilient folks and the kids are all cute as hell.
Our family has been in Kenosha for about 2 months, and as the weather warms and the initial settling in frenzy calms down, we’ll be introducing them to more aspects of community life in K-Town. Two of our volunteers are planning to walk with the parents and the two youngest kids (ages 3 and 4) to the library (Southwest) this Thursday morning (May 5) to get them signed up for library cards and to show them a few things about what the library is and what KPL resources the family might benefit from. They plan to arrive around 10-ish.”
Naturally, I was thrilled that the library was identified as an important place for this family to visit. What I was unprepared for was the remarkable and joyful response from our Youth and Family Services staff:
“Amy Rae and Jessica had the excellent idea of pulling some wordless/near-wordless picture books and/or graphic novels for them. The idea is that the parents can talk to their child about what's happening in the pictures / make up a story. Amy Rae already has an entire stack set aside for them on the YFS desk! I will check everything out on my staff card so that nobody is looking for them, and will keep them at the desk with a note on top so you know it's for that family.
Jessica mentioned that they might really enjoy the developmental collection if they don't have any/many toys to play with at home. I agree, but was also thinking that we have plenty of literacy-focused items in that closet. So, I pulled a few things that might help--an ABCs soft book, photo library cards, and a launchpad for English language learners called "Say It In English." Those are also with the books at the YFS desk.
Finally, Jessica wondered if Pronunciator would help the adults in learning English. I checked, and it does appear that Pashto speakers can use it to learn English! So, that's wonderful news.”
Have I mentioned lately how proud I am to work with this KPL team? What a wonderful gift you are to the Kenosha community!
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And while we're on the subject of making a difference, here's another story to celebrate:
"While on the phone with Kimmy ending the conversation, the patron stated she needed assistance, but could not reach the call button to have one of the nurses at her senior facility come to help her. Kimmy had the patron's account open and verified her address with her. Once the address was verified, Kimmy told the patron she was contacting the senior center to assist her. Kimmy hung up the phone and contacted the Kenosha Senior Living facility. She explained she was on the phone with a patron and that she requested she needed assistance. The woman who answered verified the name and the address and apartment number with Kimmy that it was the right patron she was calling about. Kimmy said yes and the woman from the senior center said that they were going to assist her now and that they were thankful she was on the phone with someone when something happened so she could get the help she needed."
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Have a great weekend, everyone!
Barb
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