Community Conversations

Community Conversations of 2021

We are approaching a year since the global pandemic changed all of our lives, and it is time to ask how the needs of our community have changed over time. Since the first Community Conversations initiative in 2017, much has changed in Altadena and at the Altadena Libraries. As the Altadena Library District embarks on the exciting journey of improving its buildings and services thanks to the community support of Measure Z in the November 2020 election, we want to ensure that the work we do as a library in our local neighborhoods, in our buildings, and with our community partners is in alignment with our community’s dreams and needs.

What kind of community do you want to live in? How is that different from what you see now? How can these answers shape the services and offerings of our Altadena Libraries?

These are the very questions we seek to ask our community in 2021. By partnering with YOU, our neighbors, we want to provide a space for you to connect with the neighbors on your block, share your aspirations together, and make an impact in your community.

People gathering in Community Conversations in a living room and virtually on the computer

What Happens in a Community Conversation?

Neighbors from a certain block gather in someone’s living or backyard (or virtual Zoom room, for now) and library staff guides participants through a casual conversation with questions designed to identify neighbors’ aspirations, community challenges, and opportunities for action. That’s it! Once the conversation is done, neighbors are welcome to spend more time together or go their separate ways. It is encouraged that neighbors schedule another check-in sometime soon to strengthen the relationships and tackle other neighborly topics like emergency planning or civic engagement.

“I have lived next to my neighbors for years and we had never talked more than a friendly wave and morning greeting. To be able to connect with people that face similar challenges to me and have similar dreams for our neighborhood made me feel like a part of this community; it was a warm and cozy experience. There’s safety in knowing your neighbors, and it’s good to know we all want to keep Altadena’s unique character and diversity while we make improvements together.” – Reflections from a Participant in a 2017 Community Conversation

Laying the Path Ahead

The feedback from the first 5-6 months of Community Conversations will be compiled into a report highlighting recurring themes from feedback from across the community that will be used by the Altadena Libraries to guide the planning of our services and offerings as well as upcoming library building projects. The report will also be made available to our community partners to help us reduce duplication of efforts, share resources and talents, and deepen our connections to each other and Altadena.

Want to host a Community Conversation for you and your neighbors? Here’s how it works:

Fill out this form so that library staff can reach out to you to identify a date for your conversation to be held virtually or in future in person at your home or in your front/backyard:

Library staff will set up the Zoom link if your event is virtual and will provide you with information you can use to invite the neighbors on your block to the conversation. That’s it! Once the group shows up, library staff leads the way through a facilitated conversation that takes about an hour!

Background – Libraries Transforming Communities

Group gathers at a Community Conversation in an Altadena homeIn 2017, Altadena Library District led the way for California libraries looking to “turn outward” to their communities and to revolutionize the role of the modern library by undertaking an innovative initiative called “Community Conversations,” inspired by the American Library Association’s “Libraries Transforming Communities” movement and the Harwood Institute’s Turning Outward approach to community engagement. For three months, Altadena Library met with hundreds of neighbors in homes, local businesses, and organizations across Altadena to discuss aspirations for the community, challenges it faces, and practical action steps toward change. The insightful feedback was shared in the form of a comprehensive report at a Town Hall meeting with Altadena stakeholders and all interested community members and stirred up authentic discussions about needed progress in the community.

Applying Changes

A Year in Review Community Conversations report

In the year following the initial launch of the Community Conversations initiative and Town Hall Meeting, a team of Library staff dedicated to carrying on the Turning Outward approach continued to meet regularly, with the responsibility for implementing and documenting new programs and services at the Library which were a direct result of our community’s feedback. Download the Year in Review report about the significant progress that took place since the Community Conversations initiative launched.