One of the most exciting programs I learned about during the Transforming Life After 50 Fellowship (TLA50) was a partnership between Multnomah County Library http://www.multcolib.org/  and Hands on Greater Portland http://www.handsonportland.org/ called Books to Action.   Community members read a chosen book, joined a book discussion and then had an opportunity to take part in a companion service project in the Portland area.  

With so many nonprofit organizations and avid readers in the area, Boise was the perfect place to replicate this program.  The library could provide an easy way for people interested in volunteering to “try on” different organizations to see if they fit their passion. The project could also augment the role of the library as a safe place for the open exchange of ideas about local and global issues.  Eager to begin, I enlisted the help of fellow librarian Rebecca Stroebel to brainstorm ideas for books and service projects.   

For our inaugural series, we decided that we wanted books that we were excited about reading, were in paperback (cheaper), and would be easy to connect to organizations in the community.  We spent time throwing out general topic areas (finance, brain health, creativity, literacy), great books that we had heard of or read, and local nonprofits that were easy to contact or with which we were already connected.  We also looked at the community calendar to see what events were already planned that we could potentially piggy back on (Rake Up Boise, Domestic Violence Awareness Month).    

Our target audience, mid-life adults (1946-1964), includes at-home caregivers, full-time, part-time, and laid off workers, and retirees.  To make the program accessible to as many people as possible, we decided to hold each book discussion twice…two different locations, one weekday, one weekend, one in the day, and one in the evening.   We decided to shoot for a weekend day for our first service project.

We took a chance and chose Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky:  Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide for our first program.  It is a tough read full of meaty discussion topics and lots of potential for service projects.  We contacted the Women’s and Children’s Alliance http://www.wcaboise.org , a leader in the community whose mission is “to provide safety, healing and freedom to victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault”, to explain the program and find out if there was something our potential group of volunteers could do for them during Domestic Violence Awareness month.  They needed help cleaning windows inside the facility…our first program was born!   Over the next couple of months we enlisted the help of fellow staff members to create an eye catching poster (including the WCA logo), order extra copies of the book (20 that would then be rolled over into our “Books for Book Clubs” set), create a bibliography of related resources, develop discussion questions, and spread the word around town and to our regular customers.

When all was said and done, seven women participated in the book discussions and three participated in the service project.   We were thrilled with our results!  Here’s why: all 20 copies of the book were checked out at some point before the program; people called to say they were sorry that they could not participate in the program; and a customer called the week after to ask for the contact information for the WCA to find out if she could still volunteer  “in the name of Books to Action”.  The discussions themselves went far beyond anything I had experienced at previous library events.  We had a group of women ready to start changing the world one little step at a time. 

Here are some comments from participants:

“I am flabbergasted that more people are not here to discuss these issues!  I thought it would be standing room only.”

“Sorry you didn’t get more people, but were you going for quality or quantity? You got quality.” 

“Thank you Boise Public Library for taking the initiative to do this.”

After reviewing the surveys at the end of the program, we discovered that every participant was in our target group. We received many fabulous suggestions for future topics including community organizing, taking care of aging parents, and practical ways to be energy independent.  Suggestions for other groups to partner with included Boise State’s Centre for Creativity and Innovation and the Family Day Shelter.

I was inspired by the women in our discussions and our trip to the WCA.  I plan to continue volunteering and hope to bring my daughter.  Unbelievably, it’s time to get our next project rolling so we will be ready in January.  We will be tackling literacy with the book Life is So Good:  One Man’s Extraordinary Journey Through the 20^th Century and How He Learned to Read at Age 98, by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman.

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, please contact me at schase@cityofboise.org.