YA Services Minutes - August 25, 2021

Pivot, a Turning Point for Youth

Guest Speaker: Genesis Brown, Marketing and Communications Coordinator for Pivot

Pivot is for teens/young adults up to age 24 in crisis, those who may be aging out of foster/DHS care, those in unsafe circumstances, or just without a place to live. Pivot gets involved within 20 hours of contact, wraparound services, social/educational/criminal justice/family/individual counseling. Classes, life skills, emergency services, transition services. Partnered with Variety care. 10am-4pm teens are off campus, when teens may end up at libraries or feeding sites.  

Building a Tiny Home community for those that have no family and need transitional living. Free first month, then $150 rent, but rent is returned in part when they move out. They are working to set up online referrals, working on QR code.  Website is in being updated.  Best choice is QR code or call. Genesis will send over the code and an actual physical application. Emily will share out any digital flyers or posters. 

PSA is currently working with Pivot on the Safe Place designation for the library, Pivot will be the one responding to teens who request help at the library, currently On Cue and fire stations are Safe Place partners. Pivot on NE 50th near the Service Center (north side of the street slightly west of the SC). Serves all of Oklahoma County, but some greater metro/surrounding counties as well. Website is pivotok.org. 

Maybe opportunities to do Outreach/Programming in the future. Coordinate with Emily and contact [email protected] or [email protected]  

OES Updates 

Transforming Teen Services Training – all four sessions were recorded and are available via EduBrite. Talk to your supervisor if you’d like to enroll in the classes for Connected Learning, Computational Thinking, Ages & Stages (Adolescent Development), and/or Educational Equity. A few staff shared their positive experiences with the training. 

TeenTober is happening in October! Be sure to universal tag your programs in Library Market for marketing and promotion. 2022 summer teen volunteer t-shirt contest part of TeenTober this year. 

LitFest is happening this month. Resources and videos are available for later viewing/use. 

Summer Reading 2021 Wrap-Up

Please fill out your staff surveys by August 31! Comments from staff: 

Missed having in-person volunteers 

Outside in-person programs was nice. Worked better than digital at my location.  

Didn’t hear anything about badges. 

Delayed pickup was hard for some locations, kids did not come back after 2 months. 

Science kits did not work well without tech. 

One level is easy but we need ways to encourage reading after goal. 

Delayed pick up forgetfulness. 

Sharing 

SO - helping with TikTok video, teens picking book prizes, comic book day did well, Pirate Day plans in progress. 

CH - College App Week TH Kit, Haunted House hybrid plans 

CL (Melannie) - Still new, but happy to be at CL. Needs to learn about D&D. 

VI - Two TH kits in summer but switching back to 1, doing Intermediate Sequoyah theme 

DN (Kimberly) - Teen Book Boxes did well over summer, working on College Prep Journal, proud of Bulletin Boards did a Pokémon trainer ‘gotta read them all’ display. 

DC - Finance ready boxes for teens (the adult ones went over well), book boxes going out well, D&D is about to hit it’s 2 year mark 

SPP - Good job on SR, if you have any TikTok ideas reach out 

ED - Book Nerds helping with book box recommendations, mini pumpkin decorating contest, Tween age book club, cartooning series, Camp Half Blood, Urban Legends/fake news 

DVS – Virtual CRTD twice a month this fall, sign up if you’d like to help/need a pick me up 

MC - planning outdoor programming in November, take home kits until it cools down 

CL (Kimberly) - fidget toys program, planners, outdoor on Thursdays, been doing a kit per month, D&D is still happening 

NW - was going to start Coding Club with laptops but that is on delay, take home kits on coding themes, YA book club (both teens and adults), going to do outside book club in October 

DN (Stephanie) - Bulletin board was Fall-tastic Reading, September college prep basics kits, test prep in October, November will be FAFSA 

AL – Take home kits, scaling back and trying zoom since folks are now more ready, passport kits are going to transition to crafting, starting Anime club, Halloween take home kit multi-age 

PSA – discussion about Crunchyroll for anime clubs 

OES (Jessica) - vaccine clinics, 123 Play with Me 

RE - TeenTober, Nailed it/Failed it Contest, Scavenger Hunt take home kit, Halloween kit, College Prep week take home kit, art theme week 

OES (Kristin) - Grant for series of virtual programs for Hispanic/Latinx Heritages Month, grant NASA at my Library, James Web Space Telescope, launch program with SMO in Fall, pictures program in Spring, RE programs but can be done at other locations 

OES (Teresa) - surplus take home kit boxes may become available. Libraries can keep Readers, Tweens, Jfic, teen, Spanish language books. Adult, Easy and Board Books need to come back. We have a spread sheet for counts of all left over items.