Penny Johnson from Baraboo was our featured presenter talking about engaging promotions and programs for teens. She had some inspiring things to say to start us off. The 40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents, created and studied by the Search Institute have been used by people who work with teens as a guide for more than a decade. Penny mentioned that a public library with a robust teen program can answer more assets than any other community organization!
Penny created a handout and a Pinterest page, and I’ll be following up with some specific ideas she and others shared at the workshop in the coming days. For now, look at this awesome array of promotion ideas:
- Fold cootie catchers with information about library programs for teens, and distribute in school lunch rooms, your teen area, and other places teens hang out in your community.
- Social media works great for many teens, but keep up your website so their parents can keep track
- School visits
- Penny brings a flier for the SLP programs and a bag full of props. She brings out a prop, and the first kid that can tell her what it has to do with the summer programs gets a candy bar. It keeps the kids engaged in the presentation!
- Colleen from Menomonie spends three days at the middle school doing book talks and Summer Library Program promotion
- Ashley from Rice Lake goes to the middle school during lunch hour, brings a monthly flyer, and just walks around the lunch tables, chatting with kids
- Marlene from Frederic has found she gets lots of attention when she shows up at the high school in a silly costume.
- Georgia from New Richmond sends post cards to kids to remind them of key events–real mail is less frequent and doesn’t get lost in the onslaught of electronic information
- You can send an email that comes as a text, if you have the correct carrier extension–sometimes this takes some extra messing around.