Since 2016 the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice has partnered with local libraries, including those in Greenfield, Orange and Montague, as well as a school in Sierra Leone and most recently with the family literacy program, Love2Grow, of the Montague Catholic Social Ministries.
The Children’s Books Collaborative for Peace, Justice and Environment has been generously funded by the Markham-Nathan Fund for Social Justice, the Greenfield Savings Bank, and New England War Tax Resistance.
2022 and 2023
In 2020 and 2021 libraries could not hold public programs with children during the Covid pandemic. In 2022 Traprock’s Children’s Book Collaborative partnered with the Family Support program at Montague Catholic Social Ministries (MCSM). In their Love2Grow program, parents and children meet weekly for an hour of reading children’s books together. With our grant they could buy a book for each family, each month, building a library for reading at home. See photos and more on the program, from MCSM, here. Given the success of the program, we are partnering together again in 2023. See the Recorder article on this at: Turners Falls home library initiative bolsters literacy.
2019
In 2019 the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice partnered with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Sierra Leone. This marks the first time that Traprock’s book collaboration program reached beyond the local area, indeed beyond the ocean to another continent.
Click here to read more about the collaboration and about some of the history of Sierra Leone.
Read the Recorder article here.
2018
In 2018 the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice partnered with the Montague Libraries and awarded the libraries $1,000 to purchase fiction and nonfiction books for children on subjects including world peace, empathy, friendship, diversity, tolerance, community, and humans’ place in the natural environment. Our partnership agreement also included the library sponsoring five community events using selected books from the collection.
The Montague libraries purchased nearly 100 books for children ranging in age from early childhood to young teens and displayed them in the library.
Click here to see a list of the books.
Children’s librarian Angela Rovatti-Leonard has held 3 creative events in summer and fall 2018, using books with art and craft activities and music. The art and crafts have been displayed in numerous community venues. She has planned a family book reading event near Earth Day and a youth-led book and film event for spring 2019.
Click here to read a brief summary of events.
Read the Recorder article here.
2017
Learning peace, justice through children’s books at Orange libraries
The Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in Greenfield awarded $1,000 to the Friends of the Orange Public Libraries this summer to purchase fiction and nonfiction books for children on subjects including world peace, empathy, friendship, diversity, tolerance, community, and humans’ place in the natural environment.
The Orange Public Libraries purchased nearly 100 books for children ranging in age from early childhood to young teens. Children’s librarian Jason Sullivan-Flynn described the selection as an eclectic mix of fiction titles that address children’s emotional and social growth, nature poetry, and non-fiction books on topics ranging from hard science on the environment to biographies of children and adults who have advanced human and civil rights.
The books will be on display at the Wheeler Memorial Library, and the Moore-Leland Library in North Orange beginning on Sept. 23.
Greenfield Recorder Sept 21, 2017: Orange libraries use $1K gift to buy children’s books