Investing in Libraries as Community Builders grants

In addition to a project description and budget, proposals must include:

• Commitment to shared metrics – To help FAO, the Trust for Civic Life and your fellow libraries learn from the civic experiments, funded libraries will be asked to provide metrics on the following measures and questions:
• • • Number of people served through the funded programs, including number of patrons served currently, new patrons served by the project during the grant period and how many repeat/returning patrons are served by the project
    • Responses from participating patrons in funded programs to the following questions:
      • How connected do you feel to your community?
      • If you have a specific question or need, do you know how to resolve it?
      • During this visit, did you have a positive, meaningful interaction with anyone you did not previously know?

• Funded project activities must be completed by July 31, 2027.
• Agreement that all funded projects will participate in a virtual convening in Fall 2027 with other funded libraries to share their civic experiment and lessons learned to help fellow libraries, FAO and the Trust for Civic Life learn about which approaches were most successful and where barriers to greater community and civic engagement persist.

Projects will be evaluated by a volunteer committee using the following criteria:

• Does the project encourage people to get involved in the community and/or create ways for people to gather and/or contribute?
• Does the project create new, more inclusive and/or deeper civic opportunities that didn’t exist in the same way before? Is it anticipated that this project will spark greater civic participation through creative and innovative methods of engagement?
• Is it clear what patrons/community members the library proposes to reach and why? Will new community members/populations be reached and/or engaged that have not previously been included or engaged more deeply because of this project?
• Does the project explain how it will integrate the required questions to measure civic health and belonging (listed in the “Proposal specifics” section above) to reflect project impact?

FAO is most interested in hearing about projects and approaches that your library is working on or has been dreaming about. They should be a fit for the community you serve and do not need to resemble any of the examples below. Initiatives can be brand-new efforts or built on those the library has been running for some time with an interest in reaching new patrons or audiences that have been harder to reach.

Possible areas of focus:

• Engaging populations typically not as engaged with (or through) the library
• Creating repeated engagement with people to build a sense of community
• Encouraging, promoting and deepening existing work to encourage civic engagement
• Addressing library needs to better integrate into the community’s civic landscape
• Reaching groups (e.g., specific age groups, multigenerational, etc.) you’ve wanted to engage with programming you have not yet been able to implement
• Experimenting with new ways of marketing programs, timing of when programs are offered and/or location of programming, etc.
• Partnering with community members, interns and/or organizations to increase capacity for program delivery
• Responding to community feedback on programming needs, gaps or opportunities to connect
• Developing systems and processes for information gathering to guide community engagement

Project examples:

• Implementing new programs designed to respond to areas of interest or need identified by library patrons and/or community members
• Testing new ways of promoting existing programs or how they are offered to reach more potential patrons, especially populations that have been harder to engage
• Collaborating with other institutions to encourage engagement and participation beyond library walls through other community events or public spaces
• Integrating community members and volunteers as leaders of programs, engagers of a more diverse set of patrons or providers of trainings and expertise
• Hosting civic conversations or events to bring together friends and strangers around a shared purpose or topic
• Pairing programs with bookmobile stops to bring programming and engagement opportunities beyond library walls, addressing transportation barriers that often prevent broad participation
• Establishing mini libraries across the community, aligning the included books and resources to readings, events or other materials at the library branches
• Planning bookmobile visits and services for assisted-living and retirement homes or other spaces serving those with challenges and barriers that make it hard to physically visit the library to enjoy its benefits
• Launching countywide One Book programs where entire counties read the same book that responds to an experience or challenge common to the community with tactics for broad participation
• Experimenting with new book clubs designed to broaden the participants in book club meetings (e.g., an “any book” club where participants read books of their choosing within a designated theme, prompting wider conversation and participation)
• Developing new lending offerings through a library of human skills/expertise to be shared between patrons or a library of things/items the community has identified as needs
• Introducing new ways to gather and gain new skills through cooking classes or demonstrations to promote healthy eating
• Developing programs for Innovators-in-Residence, bringing experienced professionals to connect with and to support learners with an interest in a particular topic