Talking Teen Services: How Could We Serve Caregiving Youth?
In 2023, the Healthy Kids Colorado survey asked middle and high schoolers in Colorado whether or not they “provide care for someone in their family or household who is chronically ill, elderly, or disabled with activities they would have difficulty doing on their own one or more days a week.” An estimated 12.4% of high schoolers and 20.5% of middle schoolers responding said yes.
Caregiving youth who provide care for adults and/or younger children in their families, households, and communities often go unseen by professionals working in community settings like public and school libraries. We ask “How do I get teens into the library?” instead of asking what responsibilities teens have at home that prevent them from visiting the library. During this session, our panel of experts and caregivers will help us learn more about how to better see these unseen young people.
Through large and small group discussion, let’s come together to consider what shifts we could make to our spaces, systems, services, and programs that will allow us to meet some of the needs of caregiving youth and those in their care. From simple things we could change tomorrow, to big dreams with potentially big impacts on our organizations and communities, we can share in advancing our goal to serve all young people through our public and school libraries.
Participants may want to view the recording of the January 13th panel before this event for additional background information.
This will be a HIGHLY interactive session. Please come prepared to actively participate in the discussion.
Because of the nature of this discussion session, it will NOT be recorded.