Family Engagement Toolkit

The Public Library Association (PLA) and The American Library Association (ALA)’s Libraries Transform campaign have partnered to create a free toolkit for raising awareness of how libraries promote family engagement in their communities.

Libraries and librarians are important advocates for families of all types, income levels, and backgrounds: they give parents and their children a welcoming space to learn, explore, and enrich their lives together. This toolkit will equip library supporters with adaptable resources to promote family engagement at the library; the tools within can be utilized for such diverse purposes as marketing, fundraising, and legislative advocacy.

In March 2017, PLA and the Harvard Family Research Project (now known as the Global Family Research Project) released the publication, Ideabook: Libraries for Families, which serves as the basis for this toolkit.

Family engagement is a shared responsibility among families, educators, and communities to support children’s learning and development. Family engagement begins at birth and continues through young adulthood. It happens everywhere children learn—especially at the library.*

Family engagement is about developing the knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors that enable children to be motivated, enthusiastic, and successful learners. In libraries, this means having respectful partnerships with families and providing information, guidance, and opportunities for families to be active in their children’s learning and development. Families support their children’s learning when they believe that they are responsible for their children’s education and feel confident that what they say and do makes a difference. Trusted community educators, including librarians, can encourage and inspire families to be engaged in their children’s learning at any point in a child’s lifetime.

Ways that libraries can provide inspiration and reaffirm family members’ important roles in their children’s learning:

Reaching out: Libraries reach out to families, especially those in special circumstances, to promote the programs, collections, and services that are vital in a knowledge economy.
Raising up: Libraries elevate family perspectives to develop and improve programs and services.
Reinforcing: Libraries guide and model the specific actions that family members can take to support learning, from birth through young adulthood.
Relating: Libraries offer opportunities for families to build peer-to-peer relationships and increase social networks.
Reimagining: Libraries expand their community partnerships to reimagine ecologies of learning and how to support healthy children and families.

Learn more about The Five “Rs” and PLA’s family engagement initiatives by visiting http://www.ala.org/pla/initiatives/familyengagement.
*Weiss, Heather B., Margaret Caspe, M. Elena Lopez, and Lorette McWilliams. IDEABOOK: Libraries for Families. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project, 2016.

BECAUSE STATEMENTS

BECAUSE COMMUNITY SUPPORT HELPS PARENTS THRIVE.

Parenting isn’t always easy, but libraries can help.

For parents, being engaged in one’s community and avoiding social isolation is crucial: staying connected to others promotes self-sustenance and reduces the odds of depression, in turn decreasing the family’s risk of child behavioral issues and child maltreatment.* Libraries can serve as a crucial lifeline for parents, providing community programs that give families a chance to socialize and support one another. Beyond that, libraries also offer all kinds of resources and materials that can help parents’ thrive, from guides about raising children to information for maintaining their own physical and mental well-being.

*Small, Mario Luis. Unanticipated Gains Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Promotional Ideas

Use this statement to remind families that libraries don’t just provide amazing materials and activities for the kids in the household—libraries have vast offerings for parents, too. Try using one of the graphics featuring this statement in a social media advertisement with a link to information about library programs, collections, and services that can help local parents stay connected and improve their quality of life. You could also use this statement for advocacy purposes, sharing the message with key stakeholders to make the case for the important role libraries play in local communities.

Program Ideas

At Sunnyvale Public Library (CA), the Make-HER Program is designed to give girls ages eight to twelve and their mothers a chance to work together on creative, hands-on STEM learning opportunities. Led by a team of #LadyMakers, all specializing in a different STEM field, girls and their mothers (or female mentors) inspire each other to experiment and build confidence in STEM concepts. The program builds girls’ confidence as well as stronger mother-daughter bonds. The weekly two-hour sessions also provide ideas for activities mothers and daughters can do at home to extend the concepts.

Program Ideas in Action from Ideabook: Libraries for Families.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE LEARNING HAPPENS 24/7.

Libraries help kids learn outside of the classroom.

Children only spend one out of every six waking hours at school*, but libraries help families make the most out of evenings, weekends, and school breaks. Libraries offer free books, movies, games, and programs that let kids challenge themselves, explore new ideas and pursue their passion when they’re not in class. For parents, this provides a valuable opportunity to help their child learn, get to know their interests and strengths, and discover new ways to engage them at home.

*Expanding Minds and Opportunities: Leveraging the Power of Afterschool and Summer Learning for Student Success. Washington, D.C.: Collaborative Communications Group, 2013.

Promotional Ideas

Use this statement to highlight your library’s educational offerings, as well as for showing key stakeholders that libraries are a valuable investment for your community. The possibilities are endless—you could display it as a poster to call attention to a particular collection, or print out a postcard version with statistics on the back to use in a letter-writing campaign to local legislators.

Program Ideas

Afterschool programs have historically been an important support for working families. With a growing need for quality afterschool options, particularly for children from low-income homes, Martin Library (PA) contracted with the School District of the City of York to provide afterschool programming at K–8 local schools. The partnership fills the need of families for safe and enriching afterschool experiences for students. The library’s afterschool activities include:

Homework help and enrichment in the science and arts—all provided by library staff.
A hot meal and snack provided through a partnership with a local church’s food and nutrition outreach program.
Family participation at the end of the week in activities around the work the children have completed (e.g., looking at artwork, watching a skit).

Innovative learning projects include a cultural awareness program created by the city’s poet laureate and performing arts classes by local theater experts. At the culmination of the programs, families come in to see displays, projects, and cultural traditions presented by the children.

Program Ideas in Action from Ideabook: Libraries for Families.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE PARENTS AND TEENS NEED A PLACE TO CONNECT.

Libraries create quality time between adolescents and their parents.

Humans undergo a key phase of brain development between puberty and their mid-twenties, and experts agree that strong relationships with adults are crucial during this time. Parental support helps teenagers improve their interpersonal and decision-making skills as well as avoiding impulsiveness and risk-taking.* Libraries help families with teens forge those connections: enriching programs for all ages let kids and their parents bond by learning side-by-side. Even going to the library to check out materials together is a free and easy way for families to spend time together any time of the week—diverse offerings including books, movies, comics, and games for all ages make sure there’s something available for every member of the household. And as teens grow up, libraries have resources that let parents help them every step of the way, from college applications to job searching.

*Steinberg, Laurence D. Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.

Promotional Ideas

Use the statement to showcase library resources and programs that could serve as a bonding opportunity for teenagers and their parents—anything from 3D printing classes for learners of all ages to a new book series appealing to teen and adult readers. Consider using the digital graphics featuring this statement as part of a social media advertisement to reach new audiences, or place a print version as a feature in a local newsletter.

Program Ideas

At Denver Public Library’s Central Library (CO), children and families can enjoy tinkering with equipment, materials, and software to design an array of creative products. Called SM Energy ideaLAB, this maker space and digital media lab is open year round, with different hours targeted for specific age groups—teens, adults, and families. The library also provides workshops on computer basics, coding, robotics, and software. During family time at ideaLAB, staff members make sure children and adults spend meaningful time together. Their slogan is No child without an adult; No adult without a child. The ideaLAB staff also collaborate with the children’s department to provide activities for younger children who often attend with their older siblings and parents.

Program Ideas in Action from Ideabook: Libraries for Families.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE LIBRARIES WELCOME FAMILIES OF ALL BACKGROUNDS.

Libraries ensure that families of any income level have a place to spend time together.

On average, families living below the poverty line visit libraries more than any other community space, including museums, bookstores, and theaters.* Libraries have long worked to provide welcoming spaces and enriching resources for people across the socioeconomic spectrum, promoting a world where anyone can learn something new, connect with their communities, or just enjoy a great book or movie at no cost. For lower-income families, the library can be a crucial gathering place, allowing children and their parents to enjoy quality time and explore together.

*Noel, Amber, Patrick Stark, Jeremy Redford, and Andrew Zuckerberg. “Parent and Family Involvement in Education, from the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2012.” National Center for Education Statistics, 2016.

Promotional Ideas

Posting flyers featuring this statement around your area could be a powerful way to remind community members that they and their families are always welcome at the library. You might also use it to promote specific outreach events focused on equity and inclusion, such as program geared toward immigrant or refugee families in your area. This statement could also be used as part of your advocacy efforts, as a way to remind stakeholders how much marginalized families depend on the library’s support.

Program Ideas

In 2014, the Richfield Public Library (UT) was among five libraries to receive a Talk Story grant from the American Library Association. Talk Story is an initiative that provides minigrants to help libraries build culturally relevant collections and

programs. It directs its grants to Asian Pacific American and American Indian/Alaska Native children and their families. Richfield Public Library used the funds to:

Expand the library’s collection, with over fifty additional fiction and nonfiction books and DVDs featuring American Indian actors.
Offer cultural dance classes.
Provide American Indian art activities, such as telling stories and crafts.

Richfield Public Library continues to find ways to make the acquired collection accessible by grouping all American Indian books and resources thematically in an easy-to-find location.

Program Ideas in Action from Ideabook: Libraries for Families.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE FAMILY TIME CAN NARROW THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP.

Libraries combine family bonding and engaged learning.

Research shows that high parental involvement can help reduce the literacy gap between children of more- and less-educated mothers.* But family engagement doesn’t always come cheap: high-income households spend almost seven times more money on enrichment activities than their low-income counterparts.** Fortunately, libraries help level the playing field, offering free access to collections and programs that let families come together without the steep price tag.

*Dearing, Eric, Holly Kreider, Sandra Simpkins, and Heather B. Weiss. (2006). “Family Involvement in School and Low-Income Children's Literacy: Longitudinal Associations Between and Within Families.” Journal of Educational Psychology 98 (2006).
**Duncan, Greg J., and Richard J. Murnane. Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality and the Uncertain Life Chances of Low-Income Children. Russell Sage Foundation, 2011.

Promotional Ideas

Use this statement to highlight how library programs and collections bring families together—from picture books that parents can read aloud to makerspace activities that let the whole household learn together—and thus promote enrichment and education for people of all income levels. With its focus on social equity, this statement could particularly useful for advocating to stakeholders like funders and legislators: try printing it as a postcard to use in a letter-writing campaign in support of library funding.

Program Ideas

Nineteen percent of children and youth in Waukegan (IL) live in poverty and over half of the population identifies as Hispanic—a recent demographic shift for the region. The Waukegan Public Library responded by developing a strategic plan, based on a community needs assessment, that put families at the forefront of children’s learning. The library sets specific goals to guide parents as their children’s first teacher, promote parents’ use of library resources and technology, and support their children’s learning over the summer. To meet these goals, the library offers:

Bilingual story times for young children and their families, and bilingual, literacy-based sessions for children ages four to seven.
Support for healthy families, including helping them to enroll in the Affordable Care Act and offering courses on how to eat healthy.
Resources to improve the lives of their patrons, such as courses for earning a GED, passing the U.S. naturalization test, and acquiring a Temporary
Visitor Driver’s License.
Family-oriented bilingual education, where children learn English through stories, music, games, and activities while their parents participate in language and conversational classes.

Program Ideas in Action from Ideabook: Libraries for Families.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

BECAUSE LIBRARIANS HAVE EXPERT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEARNERS OF ALL AGES.

Your library offers thousands of books, movies, and games. A librarian can help you pick the right ones.

Parents looking for children’s media have more choices than ever, but having endless options can make life complicated. In a recent study of families with 2- to 10-year-olds, more than 50% of parents reported needing assistance finding the best-quality educational materials to support their children’s learning.* With their vast knowledge and expertise, librarians are a key resource for families like these, able to suggest high-quality media for kids of all age groups and areas of interest. Thanks to libraries, parents can confidently choose titles to read, play, or watch with their children.

*Rideout, Victoria. “Learning at Home: Families’ Educational Media Use in America.” Joan Ganz Cooney Center, 2014.

Promotional Ideas

This statement could be a valuable tool for your library’s marketing efforts toward parents. Try printing the poster-sized graphic and using it as a display near one of your children’s media collections to encourage parents to ask questions and seek input from library staff, or hand out bookmarks featuring this statement at storytimes to remind families of all the resources librarians offer.

Program Ideas

Homer Public Library (AK) serves a geographic area over sixty miles in size, with a population of about 5,000 people, and with some villages so remote, they are only accessible by plane or boat. The library reaches out to families who might not be able to come to the library on a regular basis in a variety of ways, including through the use of its digital media platform. The library website offers access to curated content that families and children can enjoy together in their homes. But library staff members also serve as media mentors, offering families the knowledge, skills, and confidence to use the digital tools with their children effectively. When families come into the library, they receive advice on recommended websites, apps, audio books, e-books, or other forms of technology that meet their needs. A mounted iPad on the library wall, with instructions on how to use it, gives families opportunities to explore digital media in the library with their children and ask questions of the librarian as they come up. The library also offers a variety of programs—story times, maker camps, and parent workshops—to support families and children using digital media together.

Program Ideas in Action from Ideabook: Libraries for Families.

Posters, postcards, bookmarks, and digital graphics

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