Library work is intrinsically linked to community outreach and information access. I’m especially passionate about providing access to information and free resources for people of marginalized and oppressed communities. My proposed service is to create a bookmobile service specifically designed to support the recreational and academic reading habits of children in foster care.
Foster care is something close to my heart, as my step-mom was adopted herself and has always talked to my siblings and me about how much she would love to foster or adopt. When my youngest brother was in high school, we were lucky enough to be able to foster a friend of his when her living situation fell through and she was set to uproot her life and move across the country to a new foster home.
I’m familiar with how hard these kids lives can be (although I obviously will never be able to understand the full extent of their lived experiences), and I think that providing access to education at a young age is incredibly important and beneficial to someone’s overall quality of life. Through this service, I would hopefully be bettering the lives of hundreds if not thousands of kids via my librarianship and a bookmobile.