2018 Libraries on Empathy Day
Library activities on Empathy Day 2018
Over 53 Library Services took part in Empathy Day 2018 in a wonderful variety of ways. Here are just a few examples of the activities that took place across the country.
Sandwell
We bought 36 Read For Empathy book collections for our libraries this year to work with children, primary schools and families. Sandwell has the first Library of Sanctuary in the country, in Thimblemill Library. This serves as a welcoming and neutral place for everyone in the community including refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. We wanted to make more out of Empathy Day by extending it throughout June and encouraging everyone to think about what it might be like to walk someone else’s path in life. We see this as a great message to help with community cohesion and greater understanding and tolerance of each other.
Throughout June libraries in Sandwell focused on empathy - every library created an Empathy Wall and asked customers to recommend a book that helped them feel empathy to add to the wall by way of an empathy bookmark. This was also be used to invite people to identify issues affecting the local community that would be helped by more empathy. We also ran activities to help combat loneliness, following on from the great work of Jo Cox. We also recruited Happy to Chat volunteers and had a Great Get Together event during the 22 -24 June.
Dawn Bastable, Library Manager, Sandwell Libraries
Staffordshire
“As places free of judgment, welcoming to all and strategically placed to support their local communities, public libraries are a great example of 'empathy in action' on a daily basis so it was really exciting for Staffordshire Libraries to take part in Empathy Day. Most of our 43 libraries created Empathy Walls and included a focus on empathy in regular activities such as friendship groups and rhyme times.
Burton Library in East Staffordshire where I am based, made empathy a major focus in June and linked it to Refugee Week. Spend an hour in Burton Library and you will hear laughter from one of our social groups and a myriad of languages from around the world with English a second, third or sometimes fourth language for many of our citizens; see one of our regular rough sleepers settling down in a corner with a book, families using our free space, IT Buddy volunteers helping job seekers with their CVs and our community partners offering valuable support; feel a real sense of how important fostering community cohesion and understanding is in our locality.
Our Empathy Wall focused on encouraging local people to share their 'empathy issues' and possible solutions and our Knit and Natter group will be debating these. Therapeutic play practitioner Jacqui Shankly ran an empathetic parenting session; our bounce and rhyme sessions included empathy rhymes and parents and carers were encouraged to share songs and rhymes from their cultural background; Year 6 pupils visited to discuss their ideas and experiences around empathy and create some 'empathy pledges' and our young volunteers discussed LGBT issues.
On 16 June we held an 'empathy partnership and community sharing' morning involving local organisations working with diverse community and social groups. This was organised by volunteer Michael who is studying to become a library professional and I'm excited to watch this develop!
We also piloted Swap Your Reading Life by encouraging library users, staff, volunteers and partners to swap their favourite reads with someone they don’t know well, then get together on Empathy Day to use the insights gained to understand each other more deeply. We shared the swaps and reactions on social media throughout June. It was an exciting month."
Liz Gardner, Stock, Services and Activities Officer, Staffordshire Libraries
“Each year Staffordshire libraries has an extensive programme of work with children and their families which supports early language and literacy development whilst fostering a love of reading. Participating in Empathy Day provides us with an opportunity to promote and share stories which will enable children and their families to experience and understand empathy. I am pleased that our libraries make a significant contribution to work both within Staffordshire County Council and across our partnerships to build cohesive and sustainable communities.”
Helen Riley, Deputy Chief Executive and Director for Families and Communities, Staffordshire County Council
Southfields Library, Wandsworth
To celebrate #EmpathyDay, Year 2 from Ronald Ross Primary and Year 3 from Sheringdale Primary heard from the wonderful Clare Luther how the mean baboon learnt to be kind to others.
The event was organised by Learn to Love to Read and Book Clubs in Schools and took place at Southfields Library in Wandsworth.
We enjoyed learning about various animal characters such as the red-bottomed baboon and the ant eater with his long nose and sticky tongue.
As well as laughing and joining in with the animal actions and noises, the children learnt that empathy was 'about feelings and emotions' and 'thinking about other people'.
