Advocacy, as we have learned from our colleagues at the Monrovia Public Library, can easily and transformationally extend to identifying a community group in need of support and then advocating for that group by creating services and connections that produce inspiring, positive results.

The latest free, online, highly interactive California Library Association Ursula Meyer Advocacy Training (Wednesday, March 13, 2024 from 10 – 11:30 am PT) will feature a 90-minute exploration with three librarian/advocates in Monrovia of how their approach to advocating on behalf of a community group can help us create our own equally transformational approaches to advocacy. Monrovia’s efforts began with funding through a grant and continued because of library staff’s commitment to collaborating with community group members to produce long-term results. Please join us in this latest session in an ongoing series focusing on how advocacy on behalf of community groups creates wonderful opportunities for collaboration and positive change.

Goal and Objectives:

By participating in this session, you will learn, from peers, how you can create and sustain advocacy efforts that produce positive, measurable results through collaboration with community members.

During the session, you will:

Learn at least three steps to take in identifying unmet needs of members of a community group in your service area

Explore at least three ways advocates working within libraries create successful advocacy efforts on behalf of specific community groups

Develop a brief plan of action to identify and advocate with and on behalf of an underserved community group in your service are

Learn about at least three resources you can explore to further your advocacy efforts on behalf of community groups

N.B.: For a brief introduction to what Monrovia Public Library staff members offer on behalf of veterans in their community, please visit their website at https://www.cityofmonrovia.org/your-government/library/veterans and view news coverage of one of the library’s volunteers at https://abc7.com/veterans-library-books-monrovia/11100823/.

Session Facilitators:  

Mabel Cross, Librarian & Veterans Resource Center Coordinator for the Monrovia Public Library, with 37+ years of experience in the library field   

Kurt Gally, Adult Services Supervisor for the Monrovia Public Library, with 17+ years of experience in the library field

Carey Vance, Library Manager for the Monrovia Public Library, with 24+ years of experience in the library field

Paul Signorelli (panel moderator), CLA Library Advocacy Training Project Manager and author of Change the World Using Social Media (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021)

About the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series

This program is part of an ongoing series of monthly online sessions organized offered through the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series; sessions are generally held online on the second Wednesday of each month, beginning at 10 am PT. The series honors the memory of Ursula Meyer, 1977-78 CLA President, California Library Hall of Fame inductee, longtime director of the Stockton-San Joaquin Public Library, and fierce advocate for library services and intellectual freedom. The Ursula Meyer Fund was established to provide for the training of librarians in all stages of their careers, and library supporters, in political advocacy and political action, in honor of Ursula’s belief that librarians need effective political skills to advocate for library support at all levels of government. Archived recordings of previous sessions are available on the California Library Association YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@californialibraryassociati2705/videos.

To support the series through a donation, please visit the CLA website at https://www.cla-net.org/donations/fund.asp?id=23440.