|
Dallas Public Library’s Teen Wise Centers! program has been selected to receive the annual Urban Libraries Council (ULC)/Highsmith Award of Excellence. The $1000 award will be presented on Sunday, June 27 at the annual ULC Leadership Breakfast and Membership Meeting held during the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in New Orleans.
Created in an effort to serve identified, impoverished inner-city communities, the Teen Wise Centers are targeted at urban youth who fall into at-risk groups for dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, and/or gang involvement. Working in collaboration with other youth-serving agencies, the program has involved close to 7200 young people in 1998. The Teen Wise Centers, designed for youth aged 12 to 18, include a wide variety of activities, including computers, educational software, games, tutoring, guest speakers and youth forums.
“We were impressed that the Teen Wise program built on partnerships with youth organizations and city agencies such as the Parks and Recreation Department,” explained Award Committee Chair Sally Freeman Frasier. “As a model for other urban libraries, we particularly noted the program’s use of volunteers and low cost speakers.”
The Teen Wise Centers! saw an increase of 4,000 users from 1997 to 1998. “The Teen Wise Centers! uses only one part-time Library staff member, relying on librarians in branch libraries where the Teen Centers are located and on partnerships with other organizations in the community,” said Ramiro S. Salazar, Director of Libraries. “This program has proven that we can get teens back into libraries and excite them about what we have to offer.”
Criteria for the ULC/Highsmith Award of Excellence include that the program fill an urban need, can be replicated easily, is cost effective and low in budget, and has demonstrable results. This year, the criteria was added that the Award include a focus on one of the four major Working Groups created by the ULC Executive Board. This focus was on Urban Libraries/Urban Assets. In 1995, Highsmith Inc., Fort Atkinson, WI, became the corporate sponsor for the award.
Applications for next year’s Award of Excellence, which is open to ULC member libraries only, are available from the ULC office, 1603 Orrington Avenue, Suite 1080, Evanston, IL 60201. ULC can be reached at 847/866-9999 (phone), 847/866-9989 (fax), or ulc@gpl.glenview.lib.il.us (e-mail). Founded in 1971, ULC offers advocacy, research, consulting, and training and support services to its members. Membership is open to library vendors and public libraries serving populations of 50,000 or more in a standard metropolitan statistical area. |
