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Serving the Underserved

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How to Be a Youth Advocate

A youth advocate in the library supports or defends the rights of youth to services, resources, and

programs equal to those of other user groups. Equal access, equal services, equal resources, equal

programs regardless of age. Advocacy assumes that youth have rights, and that those rights are

enforceable.

Youth advocates assume a responsibility to empower youth to identify, retrieve, and use information and they seek to expand resources made available to youth, promote access, and encourage exploration of ideas. These advocates remove barriers between youth and information.

Why do libraries serve youth?

Why do libraries serve youth? Because they need us. Today’s youth are in trouble; they are at risk. Libraries as community institutions have a responsibility to help do something about it. It is not our primary function and we should not become social workers; but, if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.

Why do libraries serve youth? Because we need them. In Buildings, Books and Bytes, a report from the Benton Foundation, several warning bells for libraries were sounded: (1) young Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are the least enthusiastic boosters of maintaining and building library buildings; (2) they are also the least enthusiastic of any age group about the importance of libraries in a digital future; and (3) they voted to spend their money on personal computer disks rather than contribute the same amount in tax dollars to the library for purchasing digital information.

Libraries serve youth…

• Because one out of every four people walking through the door of a public library is between the ages of 12 and 18.
• Because today’s customers are tomorrow’s voters and taxpayers.
• Because young people who participate in community-based programs achieve at higher academic levels and hold higher expectations for themselves than American youth in general; they have greater self-confidence and optimism about the future; they express a strong desire to ‘give back’ to their communities; and they become productive and active members of their communities.
• Because most 12th graders report visiting the library yearly or never.
• Because juvenile delinquency court cases increased by 48% between 1988 and 1997.
• Because teens need more access to technology and more training in using it.
• To support a library habit from childhood through adulthood.
• To educate youth to become lifelong library users.
• To help youth define their identities as readers and library users.
• To supplement the educational institutions of the community and to become a vital part of that structure.
• To support YA educational needs to help achieve the national education goals.
• To be a youth door to learning as well as a door to learning for young children.
• To keep the momentum for library use learned by children going.
• To supplement the cultural institutions of the community and to become a vital part of that structure.
• To serve an under-served group by developing community partnerships and cooperative relationships.
• To act rather than react to situations involving teens.
• To become a positive force for battling youth-related problems.
• To defend the professional ethic of equal access, regardless of the age of the user.
• To provide youth access to resources not available elsewhere.

Creating Support for Serving Youth

Creating support for serving youth is not an easy task in budget-cutting times, but it can be done.  To do this, we need to change the focus from YA services (YA specialists serving youth) to serving YAs (entire library staff serving youth). Creating support may mean convincing your supervisor, principal, legislator, director, trustee, superintendent, or community of the importance of serving youth so he/she/they will be moved to action. If your library can afford to keep the doors open, then it can afford services to YAs. Resources is not the problem – placing services to YAs as a priority is the problem. Providing support to YAs in terms of time, money, space, and/or staff has to be one of your library’s priorities.  To create support you need to determine what you want and from whom you are going to get it.  Who really makes the decisions in your library? Who controls the budget? To whom does this individual/group listen? Answer these questions; then lobby, influence, persuade and motivate the individual/group. Remember: you want this person/group to support YA services because it is good for them, good for the community, good for the library; not because you want it. Develop an action plan. There are many behind-the-scenes and grassroots activities that you can do to work toward making positive changes for youth. Here are some ideas…

• Have a vision. Does your library have a mission statement and vision? Then everything you say about YAs has to fit within that framework. Where is the YA fit?
• Establish proof. Keep statistics; get the facts so you can be persuasive. Find ways to connect your issues to the community at large.
• Combine the data/statistics with human interest case histories. State how things are and what can be done to improve them.
• Inform your superiors. Use monthly/annual reports as a chance to get the word out. Gather information on how youth services, programs and collections helped the library achieve its goals and objectives.
• Clip newspaper/magazine articles and send them to your boss/colleagues with ideas on how the library can address issues raised in the articles.
• Be visible. See that a "youth update" becomes part of regular staff meetings. Write a regular youth column for the local newspaper. Get out of the library. Speak at public meetings on behalf of youth.
• Stay informed and vote. Campaign for candidates who are youth advocates.
• Be proactive. Push your youth agenda. Push…don’t be pushy. Be persistent, but have patience. Use short periods of silence to your advantage.
• Promote library services to youth inside and outside the library wherever youth congregate.
• Train library staff about the developmental needs and assets of youth. Explain why young adults act the way they do and how to handle troublesome behavior.
• Find partners. Get influential community leaders interested in your cause. Work with the school library and youth-serving agencies in the community. Face it: your boss is more likely to be impressed and influenced by words of support from board members, parents, community leaders, etc.
• Be a team player. Make your boss look good. Be the kind of employee your boss will value.
• Keep up with trends/issues involving youth.
• Publish. Leave fingerprints and blueprints for others to follow.
• Read and share what you learn from core YA documents.
• Encourage youth participation. Find a service project for the Young Adult Advisory Committee to undertake. You want the library staff to see young adults in a positive light.  You want the staff to have positive face-to-face relationships with youth.
• Recognize superior service to youth. Write thank you notes or design a button that says "A Friend to Youth".
• Share your YA expertise. Prepare the reference staff for YA assignments and where they can find the answers.
• Talk about books. Help the library staff provide readers’ advisory by creating reading lists. Conduct a summer reading program for teens.
• Attend state library conferences. Talk to other youth advocates. Network.
• Write letters and send fax letters to influential community/state/national leaders on behalf of youth.

· Volunteer. Serve on a committee or task force that is advocating for change. Use youth volunteers in the library.

· Prioritize. You can’t do everything alone. What will give you the most bang for your bucks?

Select one or two activities from this list and commit to it for the next year. Each year, add another activity.

SERVING THE UNDERSERVED 

 HOW TO BE A YOUTH ADVOCATE January 2001

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Exercise: Carousel Brainstorming

Subject: Youth Advocacy

Objectives: 1. To facilitate youth advocacy by enabling librarians to work with decision

makers, agencies, organizations and the general public.

2. To prepare librarians to be effective spokespersons for youth.

Strategy: 1. Write the following questions on post-it posters and attach the posters to different locations on the wall.

   a. What do you say to the school administrator who recommends replacing certified librarians with clerks or volunteers?

   b. What do you say to the library clerk who "growls" at young adults and says they are rude, loud and destructive?

   c. What do you say to the library director who cuts funding for YA resources because "there aren’t enough funds to go around?"

   d. What do you say to the Family Friendly Libraries organizer who wants library personnel to restrict youth access to certain         materials?

   e. What do you say to the state legislator who recommends relaxing certification requirements for school library media                specialists?

   f. What do you say to the male librarian who takes on the role of "top cop" every afternoon, patrolling to make sure that no teen talks, gets out of their seat, or stays in the library if they are not doing schoolwork?

   g. What do you say to the library trustee who recommends revising the library’s rules of conduct with a policy that will    disenfranchise and discourage teens from coming to the library?

   h. What do you say to the businessman who complains that he cannot get access to a computer to do company research because kids are always using them to play games or email their friends?

2. Break the group into equal # teams.

3. Each team is to go to one of the posters on the wall.

4. List as many responses to the question in the time allotted. (5 minutes)

5. Rotate one station to the right, read the ideas and add onto the list of the previous group.

6. Teams rotate every 5 minutes until all stations are covered by all teams.

7. One team member from each group reports on the ideas generated.

Time: 30-45 minutes

Materials: Post-it posters, markers