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LIBRARY - County Librarian Alicia Meyer
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Requested Action(s)
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a) Request approval and authorization for the County Librarian to apply for a 2024 Building Equity-Based Summers Implementation Grant in the amount of $5,000 from the California State Library
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Financial Impact:
There is no financial impact on the General Fund. If offered and accepted, grant revenue would be offset by an equal expense. This grant does not require matching funds.
Background Information:
The County Librarian and former Youth Services Librarian participated in a learning series offered by the California State Library on the topic of Building Equity-Based Summers (BEBS). As stated on the State's BEBS website, "BEBS empowers libraries to create summer services that are built on a foundation of equity and designed with the community so that systemically marginalized groups engage in library services in new ways."
From this learning series came the idea of working across Tehama County agencies to create a bilingual Summer Reading Adventure Journal that would promote literacy through reading, writing, and enrichment activities, while providing valuable resources to families through incorporation of community engagement. Summer 2023's Summer Reading Program (SRP) had just over 100 participants, which were largely limited to youth who were able to attend events at one of the library's three branches. Recognizing that "summer slide" (a.k.a. summer learning loss) impacts children in lower socioeconomic circumstances more greatly, and that these families may face additional barriers to attending SRP, the proposed Journal would be made available to youth without regard for their ability to attend SRP events, with special effort made to get Journals into the hands of youth who live outside of the three communities with a library presence.
Residual funds in the Library's FY23-24 budget are planned to be used for printing costs (design is occurring in-house), with F...
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