Celebrate Community Living Month
Throughout October, the Lethbridge Public Library will be celebrating Community Living Month, which recognizes and celebrates those with varying abilities living in our community.
As a community, it is an opportunity to change our mindset of seeing people with disabilities as being incapable, as we sometimes do. Rather, this is an opportunity to celebrate their contributions and accomplishments as productive and active members of our Lethbridge community. Like you and I, people with disabilities attend school in order to develop skills, work jobs to provide for their own and their families’ futures, volunteer for causes we are all passionate about, and so much more. Even though they may achieve their goals through different steps, their efforts and actions build rich and thriving communities for all of us.
To ensure everyone has equal access to participate in everyday life and achieve their goals, it is critical to maintain community spaces that welcome and engage everyone with varying abilities. The Lethbridge Public Library provides a number of products and services that promote access such as:
• special formatted items such as braille books and audio players for those who have difficulty reading print materials;
• easy-reader books for those with lower comprehension or literacy levels;
• children’s Sensory Storytime which accommodates those with developmental differences;
• Sensory Kits are an opportunity for parents to borrow materials and try out adaptive equipment with their children;
• Social Stories that outline what to expect when you visit the library and create familiarity.
The library has also teamed up with a number of local organizations to host events throughout the month.
The Crossings Branch will have special guest readers at its Stories and Stuff program as well as partnering with the Southern Alberta Individualized Planning Association (SAIPA) to offer the Picture This… Film Festival on Oct. 24. This festival features films that are either about people with disabilities or have been produced, directed or written by people with disabilities.
The Main Branch will host Quest Support Services on Oct. 10 for a public presentation on building inclusive communities, and there will be fun social activities in the Theatre Gallery on Tuesday afternoons throughout the month.
Our Bookmobile, which is open to all community members and is wheelchair accessible, will be making additional stops at various community locations.
For information about all the Library’s Community Living Month events, and others, please visit the library’s website at lethlib.ca.