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Family Place Library
In 2023, PCL became a Family Place Library.
What is a Family Place library?
As you know, libraries are not just about books. Parkland Community Library is now part of the Family Place Libraries. Becoming a Family Place Library is joining a national library network supporting families with young children. This national initiative increases outreach efforts to families with young children, particularly those under 3. While the program aims to engage parents as their children’s first teachers and help them understand the importance of play and learning, we also aim to introduce them to local community resources.
At Parkland Community Library, we want to help strengthen the community through supporting the parent/child relationship. We feel that we can use our resources, coupled with Family Place’s, to collaborate and reach a wide array of families and help improve all families’ lives.
PCL will offer programs to educate parents and families on the importance of early childhood development. We are providing a supportive and non-judgmental environment where families can learn to build strong family bonds.
Like you, the library supports literacy. We have found a new way to support literacy by using play to build pre-reading skills. Babies and toddlers learn through play, so we look forward to providing a special space and workshops where families play and learn together.
Why a Family Place library?
Family Place Libraries transform libraries into community centers for early literacy, parent education, and family support. Our network includes more than 500 sites in 32 states.
How does it help families?
Family Place builds on the knowledge that good health, early learning, parental involvement, and supportive communities are critical in a young child’s growth and development. Family Place Libraries aims to develop and institutionalize a family-friendly environment by transforming libraries into community centers for literacy, early childhood development, parent education and engagement, family support, and community information.
Trained Staff
An administrator and librarian participate in a multi-day Family Place Training Institute and online training. Topics covered include all the core components listed below: child development, family support, parent education, and best practices. Once trained, these professionals bring back this knowledge to their entire staff.
Collections
Special collections include books, toys, early literacy kits, music, and multimedia materials for babies, toddlers, parents, caregivers, and service providers.
Parent-Child Workshop
A five-week program for babies, toddlers, and their parents/caregivers, this fun, informal, play-based program provides a rich environment of toys, books, and art activities. Families can spend time together, make new friends, and talk one-on-one with a different community resource professional each week.
Family Place Libraries create fun and welcoming environments where children and their caregivers can play, learn, and grow together. These specially designed spaces feature interactive Materials for young children and parents, including board and picture books, age-appropriate toys, puzzles, dramatic play items, blocks, and drawing stations, providing a rich space for little ones to explore.
And Partnerships
Through partnerships with health, education, and Human Service agencies that serve families and young children, librarians connect parents to needed community resources and enhance library services and programs.
For Babies & Toddlers
It is expanding on the traditional role of programming for children ages birth-5 (with emphasis on birth-3). Family Place Libraries specialize in developing age-appropriate programming that supports the importance of play and healthy parent/child relationships in early childhood development and learning.
Outreach
Identifying and reaching out to new and underserved families via in-person, partner, media, and social media contacts enables the libraries to engage and build trust with new families.
Source: Family Place Libraries
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