DLA

FY25 Community Engagement Grant Awards

The Delaware Library Association (DLA) awarded three Community Engagement Grants in FY25 totaling $2500.  The DLA Community Engagement grant is awarded annually and is open to any personal or institutional member of DLA.  More information on the grant, including when the next grant cycle will open, can be found at https://dla.lib.de.us/about-us/grant/

Congratulations to the Selbyville Public Library!

The Selbyville Public Library was awarded $1,080 for their proposal; Kids in Motion.  The goal of this program is to encourage a healthy lifestyle by demonstrating to kids that exercise can be fun and as simple as moving your body in silly ways.  Yoga and Bounce Around Family (a Zumba/dance class) programs will be offered during the summer months when kids are not in school.  Classes will be taught by local parents certified to instruct fitness classes.  Weather permitting the classes can be held in outdoor spaces connected to the Children’s area.

Haley Gray, Youth Services Coordinator, was inspired by the influx of new patrons from all age ranges that have been visiting the Selbyville Library, and the staff are stepping up their programming efforts!  “Kids in Motion will give children the opportunity to learn how to move their body in new and fun ways.  These programs not only bring our community together but also help make it healthier”.  Haley is inspired by kids learning new skills and this program will help emphasize that yoga isn’t just for adults.  Plus, the library programs are free and open to all.  Many summer activities for children can cost money and be cost prohibitive for families.

Promotion for the program will be advertised on the library website and social media channels.  Prior to the summer, Haley visits the local schools in the Indian River School District and speaks to parents about what the library will be offering in the summer.  The library does this to provide ways to prevent the summer slide, both in terms of reading and physical fitness.  Having kids try things for the first time together makes it less intimidating, and hopefully the education they receive they’ll carry with them into their future.

Congratulations to the New Castle Public Library!

The New Castle Public Library was awarded $800 for their proposal; Library on the Loose.  During the school year, underserved students in grades K-12 and their families receive various resources through their public school, such as food, hygiene products, and school supplies.  However, many students and their families go without when summer begins.  The Library on the Loose program will implement a roving library model, visiting several local parks in the New Castle area to host a ‘pop-up’ library.  Using the library Book Bike (a prior DLA Community Engagement grant project), staff will circulate books and register new library users, while also playing games and providing resources that families may be missing during the summer months.  Kits may include healthy pre-packaged snacks, fruit, hygiene products (soap, shampoo, menstrual products, deodorant, sunscreen, oral health products, etc.).

The inspiration behind this idea came from a session at the 2024 LibLearnX event in Baltimore on a resource backpack program.  Staff at the New Castle Public Library have been focused on working with underserved populations and this event checked a lot of their boxes.  Library on the Loose also addresses the barrier of having people come into the library space, and flips it around so library staff meet people where they are and may be comfortable going.  Said board member, Brian Mattaway, “The Library on the Loose program is essential in the life of our community.  The New Castle Public Library is always meeting people where they are and seeks to get proximate to the needs of residents”.

Staff at the library are passionate about showing the community that the library encompasses more than just books and can provide them worlds of access to intellectual and physical things.  The library has partnered with a number of local businesses such as; Pike Creek Dental, Phoenix Family Resources Delaware, Community Collaboration of Delaware, and others.  The library also offers a seed and tool library, highlighting other examples of providing access to resources for their community.

Congratulations to the Elsmere Library!

The Elsmere Public Library was awarded $620 for their proposal, Nurture Nature.  The program will encourage participants to become advocates for environmental responsibility through creative expression and learn about insect life in Delaware with interactive activities and crafts.  There are three parts to the planned programs.  The first part is active learning, which could include a presentation with a mini activity.  The second part is passive learning, which could include promotional materials, coloring pages, displays, etc.  The last part is curative learning, and the library has many exciting programs planned such as sewing classes and beekeeping.

In talking with the staff at Elsmere it is evident how passionate they are about their work.  They are a “little library with a big heart” and they love catering to a small community and helping them engage with life skills, connections, and enrichment.  The Elsmere staff believes that libraries are part of a larger socio-ecosystem and they hope to encourage people to take ownership of their environment, not just through learning but also through creative projects.  The community loves to help the library too with donations of fabric, puzzles, books, you name it!  Said Tanya Moye, Library Director; “We serve the community but they serve us”.

The planned programs are multi-generational, and staff hope the summer programs will help steer the direction of library services and programming towards more environmentally sound programs and practices.  Reshma Khan, one of the program coordinators, stressed the importance of the programs needing to be organic and happening continually to raise community awareness.  She takes great joy in people coming into the library space, seeing a program happening and saying I didn’t’ know you could do (have / learn) that at the library!