New Haven Independent

Two dozen kids and their parents, such as Mislal Lake and her son Yohan, gathered on this past balmy Saturday afternoon at the fine new Wilson Branch Library in the Hill to hear a story. It was originally to be a winter’s tale, but since it was nearly 65 degrees outside, New Haven Free Public Library children’s librarian Sharon Lovett-Graff read aloud a different book that was at hand, There’s a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer.

However, this was no ordinary reading group. It was the opening activity of a PACK (Parents and Communities for Kids) event, one of the city’s most extensive and ambitious family learning programs, consisting of dozens of programs, free and open to the public every month, and a collaborative effort of the library and sixteen other Greater New Haven cultural institutions to promote family learning.

The key word is family. The kids like Kearah Green and their parents played “the spider,” an icebreaker activity in which everyone in the circle catches a ball of yarn, says their name and what they enjoy reading most (Kearah likes chapters books) and then throws it to the next person. Lovett-Graff explained the genesis and importance of PACK: “So many activities are only kid-centered. PACK is a chance for families to come together not around homework or school, but unstressed, in a relaxed atmosphere, at the city’s cultural institutions, and to enjoy and learn from each other.”

To that end, the library, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and 15 other of New Haven’s cultural institutions got together, with the assistance of the Greater New Haven Community Foundation, and four years ago wrote and were awarded a grant from the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund to do such family learning programming in four targeted areas: the Hill, Newhallville, Ansonia, and Hamden. “You come to a program,” said Lovett, “in one place, like the library, and then learn of something else, say at the symphony, or at Creative Arts Workshop or at the Yale British Art Center. You become a member of PACK, get a card, a calendar of what’s going on every month, and then you go. It’s all absolutely free.”

After Janiya Daniels (she read a book about a cat at home and decided to be one at the library) caught the ball and said she loved chapter books, her great grandmother, Evelyn Gibbs, confessed that she liked to read magazines the most.

Then the ball of yarn was tossed to City Librarian Jim Welbourne (pictured), who happened to be in the field of play. “I like dragon books,” Welbourne told the parents and kids. “When I read them. I try to pay attention to what it’s going to take to kill the dragon. It’s usually what?” he challenged the kids.

Little Allen Hennahjr, who caught the ball next, didn’t know what he liked to read most, but he got the answer: magic. “And if you slay the dragon,” Welbourne went on, you’re a what? Begins with the letter ‘h.’”

Hero was the answer to that. PACK is arguably a heroic and ambitious effort, so Welbourne continued to explain to a reporter, as families, such as those of sisters Yolanda and Cherese Chambers, with baby China (pictured below), moved on to the next activity. This was their first time here. They heard about PACK through flyers passed out to their kids at school. It was based on the Mayer’s book. Parents and kids both were asked to write out the things that scared them: heights, cats, snakes, lady bugs, dogs, scary movies. In fact, all pets bothered the Chambers’ kids, except the hamster, which they had to give away. Another kid, however, confessed he went to get his cat, which made him feel safe.

With such revelations and interactions, PACK is nothing less than what Welbourne called a community cultural classroom. “We’re breaking down barriers, showing families who might not avail themselves of a symphony or a museum or even a library to come in, to participate, as a family.”

This often means that books are given to the families (funding permitting!) so that a kid’s library can be launched at home. Or an arts and crafts or science project is started that can be continued at home. Or actors will come to the library to provide some type of theater experience new to the family as a whole. Finding the types of activities that span ages three to thirteen, which is usually the range of the kids who attend, is one of the programming challenges.

At the institutions, barriers are falling too, Welbourne said, with the participating institutions re-considering their fee structure, adjusting programming, and in general making themselves more welcoming to families. “A corollary benefit for New Haven,” he added, is that families, say from Ansonia, who might not consider coming to New Haven, now are, and “they are pleasantly surprised by the cultural experience here.”

Participating families, and about 4,000 have been engaged since the grant began four years ago, run the gamut “” from the Lomakins (Alexander and Irina) who have been enrolled in the program for a year when the library’s events took place at the main branch before moving to the Wilson branch last fall…

… … to brand new participants such as Ned Shehadeh and his young son Odeh Jacoub. Shehadeh, originally from Bir Zeit in the West Bank, also has a 14-year old daughter at Career High School, and happens to run the convenience store near the library, which is how he heard of PACK. Lovett Graff said that at each of the library’s twice-a-month PACK activities there are about a dozen families, the majority of whom are regulars.

PACK has just received a new grant for $250,000 from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington. Beginning in the spring, and running for two years, the grant is being described as still a work in progress, but it will involve CPTV, Connecticut Children’s Museum, and, adds Welbourne, “We are definitely considering extending the program to new neighborhoods of New Haven.” Why? “We see ourselves, through PACK, as assisting parents to be who they are “” or should be “” which is their kids’ first and best teachers.”

Those interested in enrolling in the PACK program should contact NHPL’s Kathie Hurley: 946-2228.