Back when we all crowded the supermarkets and bus stops with nary a care in the world, QLNB had plans to run a six-week storytent program on Anglin Drive. We'd outreach the provincial Summer Reading Club (SRC), snack on oranges and bananas, maybe bring along a jump rope or some sidewalk chalk, and make sure everybody knew about the neighbourhood library just down the street (open Tuesday evenings by QLNB for general borrowing and Thursday evenings by workers from the Public Library for stories, arts and crafts).
Then things changed. There wasn't going to be a Thursday night program, nor an open Tuesday night, nor any oranges and bananas to share beneath the storytent.
Plan B: “Summer Reading Club in a Box.” If children couldn't attend the storytent, maybe we could take books to them. If lending or returning books was deemed inappropriate (as it was during the early months of Covid-19), maybe we could give the children brand new books, packaged in plastic and "rested" for 72 hours. Given the cost of high quality new books - and we saw no benefit in handing out less expensive but unpopular books - we calculated we could stay within budget and still get books and SRC materials to approximately 20 children in the neighbourhood. Each child would receive two new books on our first visit, and two more when we returned three weeks later. On our first visit, we would ask families for specific titles and authors so that we could personalize the second pair of books each child received (requests ranged from graphic novels to Robert Munsch storybooks to Diary of a Wimpy Kid in English and French). We reworked the budget, swallowing most material costs and all staffing costs. We talked with our partners and funders to make sure they were on board. And we shopped as shrewdly as we knew how.
Then, one evening in early July, we walked the neighbourhood. Always mindful of the need to social distance, we made a specific approach to those children and families who had participated in the previous summer's SRC, while also offering to support any new families who spoke to on our first delivery night. In keeping with our established practice of signing interested children up to SRC in the storytent (this is the ‘outreach’ component of outreaching SRC) we looked after the 2020 online signup and ensured participants received their SRC certificate by summer’s end..
In all, twenty-one children registered for SRC 2020, each child receiving four new books. In addition, one newcomer family with multiple children, who did not register for SRC due to language and cultural barriers, received ten free books. In total, QLNB was able to deliver 94 new books to 25 children from 12 families.
This project was made possible by financial support from the City of Saint John, as wel as in-kind and materials support from the Department of Social Development - Housing and the Saint John Free Public Library.
QLNB weren't the only storytenters sidelined by the impact of Covid-19 and resulting restrictions on summer programming. The Saint John Free Public Library was unable to provide their planned Storytent in the Courtenay Bay neighbourhood. Knowing about our Anglin Drive plans, the Department of Social Development asked QLNB to help these neighbourhood families obtain quality reading materials and access to the library’s Summer Reading Club 2020. Once again, we talked with our partners (the Department of Social Development - Housing and the Saint John Free Public Library) and developed a budget that would allow us to support approximately 20 children.
As was the case on Anglin Drive, each child would recieve two new books on our first visit, and two more when we returned three weeks later. On our first visit, we relied on a community representative who had spoken with families in advance and who walked us around, introducing us to her neighbours. In the end, seventeen children registered for SRC 2020, each receiving four new books to call their own. In addition, a newcomer family with two children, a resident’s grandchild, and five toddlers out and about in the neighbourhood received two free books each. In total, QLNB was able to deliver 84 new books to 25 children from 15 families.
Financial support from the Department of Social Development - Housing, and materials support from the Saint John Free Public Library, made this project possible.
Children expressed delight (and many adults surprise) at being able to keep the books. For our part, we believe that reinforcing personal book ownership by giving away good quality books is an important factor in children coming or continuing to see themselves as readers. QLNB also views this project as a practical way to support community literacy while respecting provincial COVID-19 guidelines.
P.s., for more information on books, borrowing and libraries in the current context, check out New Brunswick Public Libraries' COVID-19 and Your Library and, from earlier this year, a CBC webstory Is it safe to borrow library books? Your COVID-19 questions answered.
