DLD Health Literacy Initiative

February 2, 2018

By Dawn La Valle, Director, DIvision of Library Development, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Conn.

The Connecticut State library's Health Library Initiative is one of the our Division of Library Development (DLD) Strategic Focus Plan "Seven Literacies" — a key element of the Division's LSTA Five Year Plan. The initiative consists of strategic partnerships; ongoing health webinar offerings; professional development workshops, and online health and wellness resources. These are offered via our Health Literacy in Libraries Libguide and through our Resources for the Public.

The Health Literacy Initiative began in 2015 with a DLD Health Literacy Fair and has since evolved into a health program series directed to the public, academic, school and special libraries we serve. Librarians implement programs and workshops in their respective communities, often developing strategic partnerships with their local health organizations.

Audience

Adult

Children / Family

College Students

Older Adults / Seniors

Rural

Urban

Young Adult

Popular Topics

Community Engagement

Health and Wellness

Advance Planning

As with any state library initiative, we begin with a community needs assessment using targeted surveys; focus groups; one-on-one feedback as well as assessment of programming trends; current events (ACA, opioid crisis) and specific needs in Connecticut communities (such as the Sandy Hook tragedy).

As part of DLD's Strategic Focus Plan work we identified Seven Literacies of critical importance in Connecticut, with health literacy being a predominant area of interest and need in the statewide community. DLD defines health literacy as the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions. People apply these health literacy skills either to make sense of health information and services, or to provide health information and services to others.

We, in turn, identified partners such as the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Connecticut Department of Public Health, UConn Health, National Network of Libraries of Medicine and other agencies and organizations to develop and plan from programming beginning with the 2015 Connecticut Health Literacy Fair.

Our Strategic Focus Plan goal is that Connecticut residents will be able to manage their well-being and will be empowered to become effective partners with their healthcare providers.

Marketing

We generally plan workshops three months in advance and begin promoting offerings 30 days in advance. We use fliers; email blasts on various listservs sponsored by DLD and partner organizations; newsletters; announcements at professional meetings and other media outlets, such as our continuing education calendar.

Budget Details

Most of our health literacy programs are presented in partnership with other state agencies, institutions of higher education and other health-focused organizations that provide instructors, programs and materials at no cost. In the event we do offer programs at cost, we have allocated a generous portion of our LSTA state grant funds to support professional development programs and workshops.

In our experience, most health awareness-related programs are offered by nonprofit organizations whose missions are consistent with our own goals.

Day-of-event Activity

A significant portion of our mission is to provide professional development programs and workshops, so we have a set protocol for program set-up, usually with one DLD consultant assigned to setup, host and monitor workshop.

Program Execution

We generally limit program attendance to 15 to 30 librarians. Most workshops fill to capacity, and when there is a waiting list, we add a second workshop within 30 days.

As part of LSTA grant requirements, we gather evaluations from each attendee at every workshop. For 2017, all of our workshops received favorable evaluations and requests for more health literacy training.

Advice

In addition to our own internal evaluation surveys conducted by our LSTA coordinator, other outcomes include: anecdotal feedback from libraries and librarians who attended our various programs and have replicated a health fair in their own community; librarians who have developed strategic partnerships and have developed their own health programming initiatives; and very specific examples of librarians who have attended programming and have used what they have learned in their own personal lives.

The key to a successful, ongoing health literacy program is developing strategic partnerships with health-centered organizations that maintain similar missions of promoting health and wellness awareness.

Short Title

DLD Health Literacy Initiative

By Dawn La Valle, Director, DIvision of Library Development, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Conn.

Classifications

Audience

Adult

Children / Family

College Students

Older Adults / Seniors

Rural

Urban

Young Adult

Popular Topics

Community Engagement

Health and Wellness

Details

Advance Planning

Our Strategic Focus Plan goal is that Connecticut residents will be able to manage their well-being and will be empowered to become effective partners with their healthcare providers.

Marketing

Budget Details

In our experience, most health awareness-related programs are offered by nonprofit organizations whose missions are consistent with our own goals.

Day-of-event Activity

Program Execution

We generally limit program attendance to 15 to 30 librarians. Most workshops fill to capacity, and when there is a waiting list, we add a second workshop within 30 days.

Advice

About Library

Library Name

Connecticut State Library

Location

Hartford,

Conn.

Library Type

Special

Library Description

The Connecticut State Library is an Executive Branch agency of the State of Connecticut. The state library provides a variety of library, information, archival, public records, museum and administrative services for citizens of Connecticut, as well as for the employees and officials of all three branches of state government. The state library also serves students, researchers, public libraries and town governments throughout the state. In addition, the state library directs a program of statewide library development and administers the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) state grant. In conjunction with the Department of Higher Education, the State Library also administers researchitct.org, Connecticut’s source for free online resources.

The Division of Library Development (DLD) provides leadership, funding, education and statewide services that enhance a local library's ability to deliver high-quality library service to their community. Direct target audience are librarians representing public, academic, school and special libraries and indirect target audience are all Connecticut residents.

About Program

Grant Funding

LSTA State Library Grant Program - Professional Development Maintenance of Effort only

Collaborations

CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services; UConn Health; CT Department of Public Heath

Attachments

exhibitor_list.doc

health_literacy_fair_agenda.doc

grant_funding_resources_.doc

Job Functions

Resources and Program Starters

Collaborations

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DLD Health Literacy Initiative

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