Community Engagement

Outreach in Early Childhood involves finding children and families where they are: daycares and preschools, parent groups like Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) or a breastfeeding advocacy group like La Leche League, grocery stores and playgrounds, etc. Advertising to these populations and providing pop-up programs when possible may reach new groups that are most in need of your library’s services but don’t have access to your building. Young families in financial need may not be able to afford preschool or extra books in the home and need the most assistance in ensuring their children are prepared for school. Collaborating with community partners can provide the most successful and rewarding outreach opportunities for you.

Parent Groups

• Target audience: Individual parents.
• How to present:  Meeting in conference/meeting room or storytime area.
• What to cover: Ask parents to identify topics of interest. Meetings could cover what’s new in the library:  books, music, videos/DVDs, and toys/puppets; a parent leading a discussion on a topic; or inviting local agencies to present on themes such as nutrition, behavior management, or choosing a preschool or daycare. Always leave time for parents to talk amongst themselves.

Library Resources

• Target audience: Parent groups, day care providers, students in early childhood programs, social workers, health care providers, individuals.
• How to present:  Host an open house in the entire library, a workshop in a conference room or on-site, or a small group in the children’s area.
• What to cover:  Reference and circulating books, special collections, magazines, computer databases and early childhood games, library website and links, community information file, music, videos/DVDs, toys/puppets. Highlight any unusual items available for parents to borrow or check out.

Storytelling

• Target audience: Parent groups, day care providers, students in early childhood programs, social workers.
• How to present:  Workshop in meeting room or on-site, parks, or community centers.
• What to cover:  Different types of stories, how to engage audience, tips for memorizing story, how to use props. Depending on your community’s makeup, oral traditions in different languages may be especially relevant.

Special Group Storytime

Invite daycare groups to visit the library on a regular basis.  Present a storytime and encourage individual book browsing. Or schedule and present storytime at their location and bring milk crates or special bins that can be used to drop checked-out books or other materials to be rotated regularly.

Curbside Pick Up

Allow care providers to call a few days ahead with a list of needed items available for curbside pick up.  You might even create special cards for daycare providers, preschool teachers or other community service groups with young children in their care that allow for no overdue fines, or extended check-out periods on books to encourage the use of library material.

Early Literacy Workshops

Offer to provide training for staff of a center on-site or for daycare providers at the library.  Your presentation could include show-and-tell of various materials available through the library, techniques and hands-on activities with story reading, puppetry, fingerplays, etc., and services available throughout the library.

Suggest Resources

Share information about resources daycare staff might find useful. Packs of developmental information and book lists can be made available to daycares for them to distribute to families. The Reimagining School Readiness Toolkit from the Bay Area Discovery Museum and California State Library helps librarians guide families in activities and learning opportunities that support children ages 0-8 in preparing for school and life. Activities that develop a growth mindset and critical thinking skills are done with parents that can be replicated outside the library.  

NEXT: Complete the Community Engagement Reflection