What?

6 librarians and 6 NGO representatives from the participatory 3 countries were trained about the practical principles of engaging communities in democratic decisions and community projects, as well as plan for the implementation of the citizens hub in their libraries. Then, the 6  community teams formed by librarians, local NGO representatives and citizens worked together, and opened Citizens Hubs – spaces for citizens to gather and work together towards being active citizens involved in their communities.

So what?

Through this project,  Vâlcea County Library developed new library services and programs aimed to support communities’ needs and to develop these communities: health education programs, programs that encourage women to develop their own business, volunteer programs to involve citizens in promoting cultural and historical objectives from their communities. 

Congratulations! We know you can do this. You analyzed your community and the factors influencing it, you have some great ideas and partners and now you see an opportunity to build a solution. 

What we have here for you is a few questions and insights to help deploy to frame, challenge and improve your message.

Here are the questions that we encourage you to focus on:

So what? What is the impact of what you will do?

Says who? What is the evidence that it can work?

Who cares? Who has a direct or indirect interest in your plan?

To get ready to present your message, work to develop a three minute ‘elevator pitch’ that you will use to present your ideas to stakeholders. But before you do that consider practicing it with your team and partners. The aim of your message should be rooted in your particular community issue that you wish to change.

Please try to consider the three powerful questions and these principles:

Humanize your message, 

Know your audience, 

Have an innovative hook, 

Make sure the medium is suitable for the message, 

Be consistent, 

Be congruent, 

Have a call to action. 

And always go back to these 3 important questions:

So what? Says who? Who cares?  

Discovering the world can be time consuming and can involve a lot of challenges, especially in the times that we live in. But the library is and has always been the opened door to another world. Only here, the cultural facets and the knowledge of the mankind can be freely accessed!

Focusing on multicultural education, the “G.T. Kirileanu” Neamţ County Library created a space for learning foreign languages and discovering other cultures, by developing volunteer opportunities and discussion events for the youth of the community. 

The “G.T. Kirileanu” Neamţ County Library, a partner in the Public Libraries As Active Citizens Hubs project, opened the door to the multicultural perspective of the world!

Wanting to help the community develop its knowledge and to promote the Foreign Book Branch, the library started to create and implement an action plan for the active citizens. With the help of a group of volunteers, Neamţ County Library is creating a dedicated space for learning about foreign cultures and languages, through special events organized for the community – such as workshops, trainings and presentations.

Public Libraries As Active Citizens Hubs focuses on the development of the active citizenship skills in 6 communities from 3 countries, by setting out a network of public libraries and NGOs that will support the creation of public spaces for active citizenship learning and practice. In the process, stakeholders from Romania, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine, countries with relatively limited democratic experiences, will learn how to set up partnerships, collaborate, and share good practices for cultivating the civic spirit in their communities.

Nowadays, the online world has become essential in our every day life. The future generations of active citizens need to adapt and to develop at the same speed of the evolution of technology. Fortunately, the world of coding is a multidimensional one and can be inspiring and playful, even for the children who haven’t started to dream yet about their future.

The Lugansk Regional Universal Scientific Library decided to focus on self-empowerment of the children and developed opportunities for kids in the community to learn coding, by using the online Minecraft application. 

PLACH’s partner, Lugansk Regional Universal Scientific Library, has focused on the non-formal education for children and started to use Minecraft Bedrock as a base for the induction into the programming world.

Volunteer mentors started to design the step-by-step curriculum and have begun to create a virtual classroom, where children can meet and participate at the weekly workshops. In the end, the children that are part of the activity will learn how to use the Educational Edition of the game Minecraft Bedrock and will be able to successfully create a project on this platform, further developing their knowledge and skills of the coding world.

Public Libraries As Active Citizens Hubs focuses on the development of the active citizenship skills in 6 communities from 3 countries, by setting out a network of public libraries and NGOs that will support the creation of public spaces for active citizenship learning and practice. In the process, stakeholders from Romania, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine, countries with relatively limited democratic experiences, will learn how to set up partnerships, collaborate, and share good practices for cultivating the civic spirit in their communities.