Example Application: Great Stories Club Library Information 1. Institution: Juneau Public Library 2. Address Line: 1292 Marine Way 3. Address Line 2- 4. City: Juneau 5. State: AK 6. ZIP Code: 99801-1361 7. Institution Type: Public library 8. Population Served: Suburb/Rural 9. Website: juneau.org/library 10. My library is located within an organization that serves an at-risk population.: No Partner Organization / Teen Recruitment Information 1. Partner Institution: Johnson Youth Center 2. Partner Institution Type: Juvenile justice organization (e.g., court, detention center, educational program) 3. About this institution: The Treatment Unit of the Johnson Youth Center is a secure facility. The average length of stay for a resident entering the program ranges from 12 to 18 months. During this time staff work with residents on their individual treatment needs while maintaining the focus of the Division of Juvenile Justice’s mission. Residents are given various assessments and screenings which outline what they need to lead a successful and crime-free life. In addition to their individualized programs, residents are required to complete core groups: Aggression Replacement Training (ART), Prime for Life (substance abuse education), and Acceptance Commitment Dialect -- a 16-session cognitive group to encourage the concepts of values, goals, and behavioral accordance with one’s objectives. These are important in fostering pro-social skills that will allow them to be productive members of society once they integrate back into the community. After successful completion of these core groups, residents often build enough trust and gain the privileges of supervised community contact and an increase in overall autonomy. The treatment team and transition case workers design and implement a 90-day transition plan to include post-secondary education, job placement, and independent living housing. Once completed with their successful transition plan, residents are released from State’s Custody. Proposal Narrative Please tell us why you are interested in applying for a TRHT GSC grant. Include why you believe the current theme (“Growing Up Brave on the Margins”) will be meaningful to the individuals who participate in your programs, what teens and staff may gain from engaging in racial healing sessions, and what you hope to achieve for your library and your participants during the grant term. What will a successful series look like to you? 1. The Juneau Public Libraries is applying for a Great Stories Club grant because we seek to increase the accessibility and range of thought provoking and compelling literature available to our at risk and incarcerated youth. Too often curriculums and pop culture still present a homogeneous culture that reflects colonization norms and does not resonate with our students. This series is a concrete step toward acknowledging their experience and expanding their intellectual life. Our book club participants have grown up on the margins and are learning to be brave. The titles and supporting materials in this series will nurture that growth in a positive and intentional way. The youth housed in Juneau’s residential programs are racially, culturally, and economically diverse. Their family histories vary. They watch and relate to the national conversation about race but lack skills and opportunities to engage directly with it. Seeing their lives reflected in books is a powerful way to acknowledge their experience. The Alaska Humanities Forum recently conducted a survey of Alaskan high school students. When asked about Alaska Natives, student responses included "they don't have jobs"; "they are poor"; "they keep us from hunting and fishing in a lot of places"; "if they don't like the way things are, they should go back"; "the government gives them free medical care"; and "they are uneducated." Teaching staff are given minimal or no training to confront these misconceptions or examine their own racial biases. The titles included in the Great Stories Club address the circumstances in which the characters come to realize their systems are untrustworthy and demonstrate the power to change them. Characters end the books with a sense of optimism and empowerment. By reading about characters with similar problems, participants in the Great Stories Club gain the mental freedom to examine systems of power and give voice to their own reality. Participants will discuss how to effect change through civic engagement and gain confidence in their ability to express their own ideas about literature and life, establishing a lasting relationship with their local library. A successful Great Stories Club series will be one in which participants are exposed to new literature and experience the pleasure of owning their own books. They will gain experience and confidence expressing their own experiences, and ideas about literature and complex race relations. They will be inspired by the journey of the characters and learn to give voice to their own experience. We strive to build life-long relationships with literacy, not just with specific literature. 2016 census data shows that Juneau is approximately 12% Alaska Native and 65% white. The Johnson Youth Center is 43% Alaska Native and 35% white. The Public Library staff and teaching staff at both public high schools is currently 100% white. This series would be a tiny step towards addressing that imbalance. In American history, there have been structural barriers to equal treatment and opportunity within the economic, legal, educational, and residential components of communities. Tell us about the current realities of race relations within your community, and of any local history that has led or contributed to these realities. 1. Alaska Native oral tradition teaches that their ancestors arrived around 15,000 years ago. The dominant historical narrative teaches that happened thousands of years later. Recent archaeological findings support the 15,000 year timeline. Alaska Native cultures include a wide variety of complex cultures, languages and societies. Unfortunately, many Alaskans only understand history in one dimensional, stereotypic ways. These simplistic views are often based on images from traditional Native life styles. A lack of real knowledge adds to racial tensions in the State, and to the negative attitudes that some people hold towards Natives. Alaska Natives history is often found in the first chapter of books that describe traditional life. This information is important but it does not express Alaska Native societies today. In fact such a limited understanding of Native cultures leads to the stereotyping of Alaska Natives as seal hunters with dog teams and kayaks. It also contributes to confusion about who and what an Alaska Native is today. This confusion includes a "more Native-less Native" trap where a Native living a subsistence lifestyle in rural Alaska is considered "more Native" than a Native lawyer who lives in urban Alaska. Even traditional life is distorted in the first chapter in many books because thousands of years are reduced to a few pages and the development, changes and variations of traditional societies is left out. This might be called "white commemorative history.” During the 1700s Russian fur traders colonized Alaska. The Russian-American treaty in 1867 handed over the powers of government from Russia, but not the lands of the unconquered Native peoples. At this time about 90% of Alaska Natives were unconquered. Their land was not purchased by the U.S. government from Alaska Natives until 1971. Like other land purchases from Native Americans, the government did not pay anything close to the market value of the land, and it offered partial compensation through some medical and other services to Alaska Natives. These debts are still being paid, causing resentment among some white people who lack understanding of this history and see these services as “government handouts.” Filipino immigrants arrived as workers in Alaska's developing natural resource industries. Alaska's Filipino community has a long history of interaction and intermarriage with Alaska Native communities, and many Filipinos in Alaska also claim Alaska Native heritage. Filipino and other Asian youth in Juneau are susceptible to the same “model minority” constraints of the rest of the country. Many perceptions of Alaska Natives today are based on the assumption that Natives and whites have enjoyed the equal opportunities of this country, since the 1867 purchase. The history of Alaska Natives tells a different story. A legal social segregation by race persisted in Alaska until 1946. Desegregation of schools was not completed until 1967. Even though many Native Americans served in the United States Armed Forces during World War 1 (1917-1918), citizenship was not granted to them until 1924. Knowledge is not a silver bullet, but it is an effective way to create a climate that supports both the self-determination of Native youth and can help deal with certain issues the state faces today. Has your library offered any previous programming or engaged in any community efforts to address the current realities of race relations in your community? If so, please tell us about those activities and the impact they've had. 1. Juneau is a diverse and dynamic community. Regional Native corporations provide fiscal support and culturally relevant education to shareholders of all ages. The University of Alaska Southeast offers a humanities degree in Alaska Native Studies and is leading the way in language revitalization efforts. We have an active Black Awareness Association, Filipino Community, Inc., Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and Asian communities. Sealaska Heritage Institute is publishing a series of children’s books incorperating Native languages, themes, and traditional stories. Sealaska Heritage Institute’s new book Shanyaak'utlaax: Salmon Boy won the 2018 American Indian Youth Literature Best Picture Book Award from the American Indian Library Association. This week a Tlingit storyteller and weaver will share her talents with children at the public library. We also host drag queen storyhours and partner with the Black Awareness Association for Martin Luther King Jr.