In the past few months, the ICfL has awarded $561,000 in ARP ESSER funds to Idaho libraries. Students spend 80% of their time outside of school, and libraries are uniquely poised to help mitigate the impacts of lost school time and unfinished learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding will help libraries around our state better serve youth in their communities and meet the unique needs of school-age kids and teens.

Out-of-School Time (OST) Grants

OST Planning Grants

Six libraries received $20,000 Out-of-School Time Planning grants. These grants will help libraries to engage in activities that strategically develop their programs and services for youth. The following libraries received this grant:

  • Ada Community Library – to build partnerships that provided experiential STEAM and culinary learning opportunities.
  • Donnelly Public Library District – to expand the library’s Dragon Readers Club, which offers afterschool care and activities for the Donnelly community
  • Gooding Public Library District – to purchase equipment to provide experiential culinary learning opportunities
  • Meridian Library District – to fund and expand its Junior Librarian Internship opportunities for underserved youth
  • Oneida County Library – to expand the popular kindergarten readiness kits program to older students
  • Prairie River Library District – to fund homework help opportunities, and provide access to college readiness and scholarship resources

OST Programming Grants

In addition to $120,000 in Planning Grants, the ICfL awarded an additional $94,000 OST Programming Grants of $1,000 – $3,000 to 33 public and school libraries. These grants will be used by libraries to enhance their current programs for youth in grades K-12. Check out the OST Grants page for more details about grant requirements and resources.

Summer Learning Grants

Summer Strategies Grants

Seven libraries received $30,000 Summer Strategies grants – for a total of $210,000! –  to use research-based best practices to build summer learning programs that connect with the library’s strategic plan. The following libraries received this grant:

  • Boise Public Library – to provide targeted outreach to underserved communities
  • Burley Public Library – to support tween and teen mental health and bring authors to their community
  • Donnelly Public Library – to help fund its summer reading and school preparation camps
  • Gooding Public Library District – to expand it summer reading resources and serve more of the Gooding community
  • Hailey Public Library – to leverage partnerships to address the unique summer enrichment needs of Hailey’s underserved communities
  • Meridian Library District – to expand the popular Tales by Mail program to include older youth
  • Prairie River Library District – to enhance summer reading enrichment programs at the district’s eight library locations

Summer Support Grants

Forty-one libraries received Summer Support grants of $1,000 – $2,000 ($81,000 total) to enhance their current summer reading and summer learning programs. Many libraries do not have a large budget for summer reading programs and rely heavily on donations. This funding will help bring high-quality learning experiences to rural and underserved communities around Idaho.

Summer School Libraries Grants

Many Idaho youth are not served by a public library or not able to go to one due to transportation limitations. For these students, the school library may be the only library that they can access. The Summer School Library grant of $7,000 was awarded to eight school libraries from around the state to keep their doors open and enhance their resources during the summer the months. You can learn more about Summer Learning grant requirements and resources on the Summer Learning Grants webpage.

Congratulations to all of this year’s ARP ESSER grant recipients! Idaho libraries understand the needs of their communities and will use these funds to make targeted investments in high-quality programs and resources to help mitigate the effects of lost learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.