The Foundation of Teen Services
When connected learning is embedded into the foundation of your teen services, and isn’t just an add-on, your priorities will shift. Instead of worrying about whether or not teens come into the library building, you’ll focus on finding ways to work with community stakeholders to guarantee that teens have the support they need to succeed in their personal goals.
Imagine that library staff in a suburban area have noticed that some of the teens in the community are interested in the environment. To support that interest through a connected learning approach, staff could:
- Focus on library staff learning about the opportunities in the community to help teens engage in environmental activities locally
- Work with those other organizations, teens, and stakeholders to build environmental activities in which teens take part
- Leverage library space and resources as needed to support those activities.
The focus is not on teens in the building, but teens gaining a variety of skills, in and with the community, with support from the library.
— Linda Braun
When connected learning is the foundation of teen services, all the teen-centric programs and services that the library staff sponsor integrate connected learning principles. Such library staff would not, for example, host a teen advisory group “and also” a connected learning program. Instead, any teen program or service — including teen advisory groups — are planned and implemented around the core ideas of connected learning.
Worksheet #2: A Vision for your Library’s Teen Services
Start thinking about how to truly make connected learning the foundation of your teen services by developing a vision for your library’s teen services. A vision is a short statement about what the library’s impact will be. Examples from the nonprofit world are:
- Habitat for Humanity: “A world where everyone has a decent place to live.”
- Teach for America: “One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.”
- Tehama County Library in California: “A community where learning, imagination, and opportunity thrive.”
If your library’s teen services were focused fully on the teens and the community instead of the library, what would your vision be? It might be something like, “Where teens find possibilities,” or “Guaranteeing teens succeed,” or “Building community through learning, creating, and opportunity.”
As you write your vision, don’t think about how the library benefits from building connected learning-based teen services. Focus instead on what the benefit(s) are to teens and the community. As you continue with the materials in this module, return to your vision and make any changes that you think help your library create a foundation of connected learning for all teen programs and services.