Advocacy, Outreach and Collaboration

Workshop

Social Justice Forums @ Your Library: Start the Conversation!

Workshop Organizer(s)

• BJ

  Brenda Johnson-Perkins, MLIS in progress

  Librarian/Youth and Community Engagement Coordinator
  Baltimore County Public Library - Towson

If you are a public librarian with a desire to amplify marginalized voices in the community and don't know where to begin, this session is for you! The challenges, rewards and best practices experienced presenting annual community forums at the Baltimore County Public Library, Randallstown branch will be shared. We have presented three annual forums: (2014) Strengthening Police and Community Relations, (2015) Making a Difference Through Civil Action and (2016) Mass Incarceration: Closing the Racial Justice Gap. Learn to partner with local agencies and coordinate community and library resources to promote critical discussion of justice, oppression and equality issues. Topics such as selecting a moderator, choosing panelists, and working closely with staff to market and host discussions of controversial subjects and evaluating the success of forums will be covered.

 

Learning Objectives:

• To describe six steps to presenting a social justice forum: Shaping the event, Establishing key players, Building evaluation into the event, Promotion,, Presenting the event and Accessing the results..
• To identify four benefits to presenting social justice forums for both the library and the community.
• To describe four ways to evaluate the success of social justice forums.