Daviess County Public Library is offering a “Healing Library” for the community. The program is designed to help offer adults and children sensitive and creative ways to discuss issues of life, death, loss and even COVID-19.
There are currently five kits available — Separation and Divorce, The Death of a Pet, The Death of a Loved One, Alzheimer’s, and Your Family and COVID-19.
Each kit contains a guide for how to use it, along with separate guides for discussions, activities, acts of kindness, community help and a curated book list with discussion prompts.
“We hope families can heal from trauma,” said DCPL Collections Manager Alicia Harrington. “They can do it in their own time frame and not have to worry about purchasing items for the crafts and purchasing the books. There are crafts and supplies with each kit to facilitate a good experience. The kit can enable families to get to the other side of trauma.”
Also included in the kits are other items that work with the information to build relationships and, according to Harrington, are designed to make a family’s journey of healing following a trauma easier to navigate and personalize.
Interested parties can log onto the DCPL website or call the library at 270-684-0211 to place a hold on the kit they are interested in. Pick-up is available through the library’s curbside service or by visiting the main desk.
Initially formed in 2016, the Healing Library is a collaboration between Kirsten Cappy of Curious City, a company which created promotional experiences and materials for children’s books and Megan Emery, a student at Syracuse University. The two women recognized that families need a way to navigate and initiate healing.
“They developed a core group of child psychologists and librarians and created kits,” Harrington said.
DCPL also offers other kits to help families. Brain Boxes are boxes filled with curriculum content, ranging “from economics to earth to government,” according to Harrington.
In addition, patrons can borrow mobile hotspots so families can use their cell service to get internet service.
