Lead the Way: Libraries at the Heart of Community Engagement

Please leave your preconceptions of a traditional outreach or program at the door. Today, we’ll explore how two library marketing professionals’ craving for slowness spawned a multigenerational, neurodiverse community craft gathering — the Racine Public Library’s Stitch N Bitch — in three stages.

“See yourself as part of your community.” The impulse to position yourself as the “presenter” or “guide” of a program for a separate community artifices a divide between library workers and program attendees. When you position yourself instead as a patron of your own program, and craft an experience with your needs and desires as the spark, your gathering will be more flexible and communal.

“To let it grow, let it be.” The Stitch N Bitch launched with big aspirations but very low structure. Because we moved at our own pace and didn’t immediately fill the space with our own vision, we cultivated with our fellow attendees a neurodiverse, multigenerational crafting space where both library staff and patrons built relationships.

“Sustainable growth is interdependent.” The Racine Public Library’s fiber offerings now include three regular fiber arts programs, a multi-organization communal quilting project, and an overflowing selection of free crafting supplies for visitors. This growth called for more structure so we could protect the work’s joy and flexibility while adding to it in a healthy, sustainable way. We found this structure in new interdependence with local crafters and trusting each other’s feedback to meet our needs by adjusting the pace.

This session will cover the basics of what you need to plan a starter community engagement program, tools and ideas to supplement your program, and the building blocks for how to grow it.

Please bring your fiber crafts with you to stitch along with us as we present for today’s session!