Tween Club provides creative social setting
If you’re a regular library visitor, you may have noticed that Monday evenings are an especially busy time at our Centennial branch. The air is buzzing with energy and excitement. Why? Because Monday nights are Tween Club. Starting at 6:30 pm, Tweens are invited into their own special club, held in our program room.
The definition of ‘tween’ is a someone who is roughly 8- to 12-years old – someone who is no longer a child but not yet a teenager. Tween Club at the library is open to kids in grades 5-8. Karissa Fast, our Children and Teen librarian, started Tween Club to create a new space where tweens can interact with each other, try new things, and have fun.
At the end of Tween Club last year, the library surveyed the tweens to find out what they liked about tween club. The answers are effusive with praise. Repeatedly, tweens mention that Tween Club is a place to be social and creative. When asked to describe tween club in one word, 15 tweens used the word ‘fun’, six used the word ‘awesome’, and four used the word ‘amazing’. One question asked tweens how tween club could be better – one tween wrote: “It’s already perfect so there’s no way to make it better”. The popularity of the club keeps growing and growing, and there have been lots of requests to start another club for younger grades as well.
As a community space, the library is a place for everyone – kids, tweens, teens, or adults – to engage with each other. In the age of the smartphone, this becomes a critical function of the library. Depression and mental health problems in teens has skyrocketed since 2011. From 2000 to 2015, the number of teens who get together with their friends nearly every day dropped by more than 40 per cent. The decline keeps getting steeper and steeper. Statistically, tweens and teens are spending more and more time on their phones – in lieu of other leisure activities like sports, crafts, and hanging out with friends.
There is compelling evidence that this decline in mental health is directly linked to smartphone usage and social media. In light of this, programs like Tween Club aren’t just for fun – they are important and increasingly rare.
The tweens kicked off the New Year by making slime. They’ve also had a pizza-mania (where they taste-tested pizza and played pizza games), a nail art night, and a night of minute-to-win-it games. In coming weeks, tweens will have a Palentine’s Party where they celebrate friendship by making edible necklaces, eating heart shaped food, and making friendship bracelets. The week after, they’re going to tiedye. The program is set to continue into the summer. For more details about tween club, visit our website at www.fepl.ca.