During the national conversation about race and justice following George Floyd’s death this summer, the Chatham Community Library in Pittsboro decided to continue the conversation, but with children — resulting in the creation of the Kids Club for Social Justice.
Meant to be a space for students specifically in kindergarten through 5th grade to learn about social justice, the club has met three times, discussing racism, transgender identities and colonization in America.
“Welcome to the Kids Club for Social Justice,” Kathleen Pierce, youth services library assistant, said at November’s meeting. “This is a safe and brave space. Please be kind to each other, and be patient. Everyone who wants to can share their voice, and anyone who has a question can ask it.”
Hosted by the library’s Youth Services Department, the meetings take place every third Thursday of the month from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. over GoToWebinar, a virtual meeting platform. During a typical meeting, Pierce shares information about a topic, hosts interactive activities such as quizzes for kids and shares a book about the subject. The club will discuss feminism and women’s rights at their next meeting, which is on Dec. 17. Though discussions are tailored to K-5 children, Pierce said parents and older siblings of students are welcome to attend meetings. You can register for that meeting here.
“There’s several goals, and the main ones are just to give kids a place to learn about social justice issues and definitely to remove the taboo that we all feel sometimes about discussing what are very complicated issues,” Pierce said of the club, adding that she wants to encourage kids to continue discussing these topics with their parents and caregivers.
So far, the library staff has been pleased with how the meetings have gone, and how engaged the kids have been in discussions.
“You know, my screen was full of little videos, it was cool,” Pierce said. “Kids are so in tune to injustice … and they see it in a way that as adults with busy lives, we just don’t. I’m just really pleased to see them notice it, and then also see that maybe they can do something about it.”
At the first meeting in September, Pierce said one boy in attendance asked if the group could talk about transgender people, adding that he was transgender and wanted others to know more about it.
“That was amazing. And I just said, ‘Yes, absolutely. We should do that,’” she said, and the topic for October’s meeting was born.
Most — but not all — of the response to the club has been very positive, Branch Manager Rita Van Duinen said. Still, she’s proud of her staff, and ultimately thinks the criticism points to the library doing something right.
“We came at a difficult time, after a very tense summer, and prior to an election, we were nervous,” Van Duinen said. “Nextdoor (a social networking service) blew up with some really nasty comments. But I always say, if that’s the reaction that we’re getting from some people, then we know we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing … Our library — any library — should always be about inclusivity, in addition to educating and literacy, so we try to replicate that in our collections, and in our programming.”
In addition to growing engagement at their meetings and within the community, Pierce said the library hopes to share resources with other libraries about the club in the hope that more places can replicate the program. Recently, the library submitted a proposal to present a conference next year to the American Library Association.
This type of programming can easily be replicated, Pierce said, because it doesn’t take a lot of resources. Kids are ready to talk about these issues, they just need the space and language to do so.
“I was really impressed by the ability of these kids to get right into it — nobody needed any hand holding,” she said. “Maybe they didn’t know all the terms, but they definitely know that these are important issues. I think that that points to the fact that kids just are very observant and need a place where they can ask tough questions about the things that they see in the world.”
Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.
