FEMA announced last week that it is seeking applicants for the Youth Preparedness Council, which brings together teens from across the country who are interested and engaged in community preparedness. Council members are selected based on their dedication to public service, their efforts in making a difference in their communities, and their potential to expand their impact as national leaders for preparedness. Students in 8th through 11th grade are eligible to apply.

The Youth Preparedness Council, formed in 2012, offers an opportunity for youth leaders to serve on a distinguished national council and participate in the Youth Preparedness Council Summit in Washington, D.C. During their two-year term, the leaders will complete both a local and national-level project and share their ideas regarding youth disaster preparedness with FEMA leadership and national organizations.

Youth interested in applying to the Council must submit a completed application form, provide two letters of recommendation, and academic records. All applications and supporting materials must be received no later than March 18, 2018, 11:59 p.m. PT in order to be eligible. New council members will be announced in May 2018.

To access the application materials, read about the current Council members, and for more general information about the Youth Preparedness Council visit www.ready.gov/youth-preparedness-council.

CHICAGO — The Public Library Association (PLA) is now accepting applications from public libraries interested in participating in PLA's Inclusive Internship Initiative (III) for the summer of 2018. Last year, PLA piloted III, an internship program designed to introduce young people from diverse backgrounds to careers in librarianship. The project was a tremendous success, and PLA is proud to offer III once again with the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (grant RE-00-17-0129-17).

Through III, PLA will sponsor paid, mentored summer internships at public libraries for 50 high school juniors and seniors. With individual guidance from a mentor, each intern will engage with multiple facets of library life, from administration to programming to user services, while also completing a connected-learning project on behalf of their host library.

In addition to identifying an appropriate intern, participating libraries must:

• Assign a staff person to serve as a mentor
• Develop a connected learning project in conjunction with the intern
• Offer approximately five hours per week of one-on-one mentoring and coaching
• Attend a June kick-off event in Washington, D.C. and a September wrap-up event in Chicago
• Be comfortable sharing successes, challenges, opportunities across the III cohort, within the library, and to community stakeholders
• Comply with applicable nondiscrimination laws, including but not limited to those in the Assurances and Certifications, throughout the grant award and the intern application and selection process

"Participating in the 2017 cohort was an eye-opening experience for both the libraries and the interns. The libraries discovered how much passion, talent and enthusiasm the teens can have for their work, and the interns discovered the powerful contributions that libraries make in our communities," remarked PLA President Pam Sandlian Smith, director of Anythink Libraries (Adams County, Colo.).

All public libraries, regardless of PLA membership, are eligible. Small, rural, and tribal libraries are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications must be received by 5 p.m. Central Time on Sunday, March 25, 2018.

PLA will host an “office hours” webinar on Monday, Feb. 26, to give interested libraries a chance to learn more and ask questions. Information about III, including an application for libraries interested in participating, can be found at https://apply.ala.org/plinterns2018.

ALSC’s Comforting Reads for Difficult Times

CCBC’s 50 Books about Grief and Loss

CCBC’s 50 Books about Peace and Social Justice

presented byMichele Stricker, Deputy State Librarian for Lifelong Learning, New Jersey State Library

Trauma-Informed Early Education Classroom Design: Designing Child and Family-Friendly Spaces for Recovery from Trauma

presented by Ileen Henderson for Early Childhood Investigations

Libraries and Compassion Fatigue

presented by Elissa Hardy from the Denver Public Library for the Massachusetts Library System

Youth Services Programming During a Time of Crisis. Capstone Project of Jamie Gilmore, Grace Morris, Erica Trotter, and Alexandria Wardrip. Library of Michigan, Michigan Department of Education. Information School University of Washington, sponsors.

Resources for Coping with School Shootings and Other Traumatic Events

Last year, more than 113,000 students, parents, and educators participated in SurveyWorks, a school culture and climate survey that helps illustrate what is working and what can be improved in Rhode Island schools.

Are students engaged in their learning? Do parents feel welcome in their school community? Are teachers included in decision-making with school leadership? These are the kinds of important questions asked through SurveyWorks, and this year, we want to engage even more Rhode Islanders in the discussion.

In particular, we’re focused on increasing family participation, because parent voices are too often left out of the discussion when it comes to their child’s education.

That’s where our public libraries come in.

Attached are flyers in English and Spanish that we hope you may consider displaying in your library. On the flyer, you’ll note that it encourages parents to visit your Reference Desk for help. If you are willing to support this effort, we can provide you with instructions on how to access and navigate the SurveyWorks website, as well as a customized list of school codes for your community. Each school in the state has a unique code for SurveyWorks, and we are happy to generate a list for your city or town, if you are willing to help local families complete the survey in the library.

The SurveyWorks window will be open from January 16 to March 30, 2018. Schools will select two-week windows in which to more heavily promote the survey, but parents can complete the survey at any time during the full survey window. The survey takes approximately 20 minutes from start to finish, and is available in English and Spanish. Schools have a very limited number of paper copies available, but with your help, we are hoping to transition to an almost entirely online administration. If you have any library events in that survey window at which you think it could be helpful for RIDE to attend and promote SurveyWorks, please let us know and we can work with your team.

Thank you for your support, and if you are willing to help us in this effort, please contact Meg Geoghegan at Megan.Geoghegan@ride.ri.gov for more information and for a list of your local school codes.

Graduate Certificate of Professional Studies in Youth Experience

applications accepted until February 16

Spring 2018 Mini-Conference at Bank Street:A Celebration of Bilingual Books and Latinx Communities

March 3, 9am-1:30pm

March 14, 2:00pm-3:30pm

Play Therapy Techniques in Early Childhood Settings: Supporting Social-emotional Learning & Self-regulation Webinar

March 21, 2:00pm-3:30pm

application for cohort 2 training in RI due 6/14/18

• typical/atypical development
• summer learning
• service learning
• using play to help stressed children

Registration, including a full program description, will be available at the end of the month. In the meantime, plan to join us Wednesday, April 4 9am-2pm at the Barrington Public Library!

Email: danielle.margarida@olis.ri.gov
Website: http://www.olis.ri.gov/
Location: 1 Capitol Hill Providence, RI 02908
Phone: 401-574-9309
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/olisri
Twitter: @olisri