Huron County's Libraries Transforming Communities is back up and running.
County Librarian and Cultural Services Director, Beth Rumble, says the program was launched in 2017 and it continued until the pandemic shut it down. But it's back now, and she explains it's a way for them to go out into the community and hear what their aspirations are, as well as their concerns. Rumble says the discussions can be about anything related to the community and their focus is on that rather than the library.
“Things that came up last time were things to do, welcoming newcomers, connections for people. So there are things we can do about those concerns and the library's a great place to find out what's going on in their communities,” said Rumble.
Rumble says they also created Welcome to the Neighbourhood bags so that people who were new to the neighbourhood would feel welcome. The bag includes information about various resources and businesses in the community.
Rumble adds, a big part of what they do is share the information they get with other groups that might be in a position to address some of the concerns.
“Because it's not focused on the library, it's focused on the community, it's relevant to a lot of different community players and that is a part of the methodology that we follow is sharing that information with partners, so whether it's the local municipality, other county departments, other organizations within the community that could use this information,” she said.
Rumble says, as well as their scheduled conversations, they go out into communities and interview people on the street about their concerns. But she also urges people to attend their discussions because issues that aren't part of their agenda often come up as a result of the discussion. Rumble says more information about the project and a schedule of their conversations can be found on the Huron County Library web site.