[yscon] Trauma informed practice & resources

[King-Oaks, Krista (KDLA)]

Good Evening All,

I usually don’t make it a habit of emailing at night, but feelings keep washing over me as I check my Facebook timeline and I thought I may be able to turn to this amazing pool of wisdom for some guidance...

As you all may know by now, there was a school shooting in Western Kentucky; two 15 year old teens are dead, with 19 others wounded and in various states of recovery. Still awaiting updates about the son of the school librarian who was injured. Another colleague’s child was put into an induced coma. Thankfully, the husband and stepchild of my youth services librarian at the public library survived without physical injury.

I am in a closed Facebook group with the public library’s branch manager, who was formerly their teen librarian. The community is very small and rural; town of 30,000. Community resources are far and few between, especially when it comes to mental health. She has posted a query about what to offer at the library tomorrow, as the schools are closed. I have encouraged all of the program suggestions, from movie day for the children, to a memorial wall all patrons can interact with - even finding a church or regional non profit who may be able to provide meals for the week while school is out. I also shared with her an interview with the director of the Ferguson (MO) PL about his programs and outreach in the wake of his community’s tragedies.

I  am feeling helpless and wish I could just hug her and take away her pain, stress, and the weariness of the long days and nights to come.

This led me to start thinking about wider opportunities for training on everything from trauma informed care to bibliotherapy, and self care for public service staff in the wake of tragedies.

My ask is if any of you have dealt with similar issues or have recommendations for resources on any of these topics, from books, to trainers, or anything you feel is appropriate.

Thank you so much for sticking with this long message. Now more than ever, I deeply appreciate the support of this amazing group of colleagues and professionals.

With gratitude,
Krista

Krista King-Oaks
Youth Services Consultant
Library Development Branch
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
(502) 564-1739
krista.king-oaks at ky.gov

Services provided by the Library Development Branch of KDLA are
funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.


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