Funded by the Charles Engelhard Foundation
In 2023 the Democracy Project continued to evolve to meet expressed needs of librarians. A soft launch option was initiated to give some sites a longer on-ramp providing time, support, and resources to build a teen audience. It also offers sites the ability to press pause on involvement while staying connected. The first soft launch cohort included 3 sites: Medicine Spring Library in Browning, Stillwater County Library in Columbus, and Geraldine Public Library. The full program happened in 8 sites. Successful voter registration drives were held at almost all sites. The Columbia Falls teens presented at the Montana Library Association conference in Butte. Half of the sites received sizable Libraries Transforming Communities grants from the American Library Association to address accessibility issues.
Open to people 13-19 years old
Free to participate
Librarians interested in the next round of the Democracy Project are welcome to fill out a Survey of Interest.
It’s become a huge family and we’ve been super collaborative in terms of being able to fundraise and just create this whole project from the ground up. We started with a mind mapping experience and that came all the way from a community garden to a green space and seeing it develop from last year has been an amazing experience.
I think our project will help the community by having a sanctuary that’s safe for people to go when they don’t feel like they have one. It’ll be a fun space to hang out with your friends and it’ll make our community look nicer.
We were able to introduce a bill to the legislature and create a website about mental health and spread this information, and skill sets, and vocabulary surrounding mental health for the teens in our state and that is a very pressing, pertinent, and important issue for us all.
I got involved in Democracy Project is because I wanted to make a difference in my community and that led me to actually being interested in what’s happening at the state level in the state legislature. That’s the reason why I launched a campaign to become a representative.
The Democracy Project kind of just opened our eyes that we could make a change if we wanted to, instead of just waiting around for the next person to do it. We just take the initiative to do it ourselves.
