Please join the Programming Librarian & MCNY to learn about the Black Maternal Health Initiative!

Way back in 2022, I was the chair of the American Library Association’s Libraries Transform Communities Engagement Grant. It was a special year: we got to award TWO grants instead of the usual one! And now, in 2023, it will be my very, very great honor to introduce the Metropolitan College of New York Library‘s Black Maternal Health Initiative.

The webinar is free; you just need to register for it. It will take place on August 2 at 1 PM central. This promises to be a fascinating, important program, whether or not you’re a programming librarian, and I think a whole lot of us could benefit from librarians Tina Callander and Natalia Sucre’s expertise—and experience at the helm of a truly community-driven initiative.

I am so proud to have been even the world’s tiniest part of getting this initiative out into the world. It’s my firm belief that community engagement must be built around what the COMMUNITY itself needs and wants and seeks, not what we seek to impose upon them as The Authorities—and MCNY’s Black Maternal Health Initiative is very much an example of community-driven resources as a community is empowered to share stories, build resources, and take care of each other.

Please join us for this Programming Librarian webinar! You totally don’t need to be a programming librarian to find it important. And, either way, please look into the ways in which you can help reduce the ongoing catastrophe of the Black maternal mortality and morbidity crisis in the United States.