Applications for this workshop are now closed. View the list of library workers selected to participate.
Application Guidelines
Date Posted: Friday, October 19, 2018
Deadline for Submission: Friday, January 4, 2019 by 11:59 pm (CST)
Award Notification Date: Friday, January 18, 2019
Note: Applications from individuals who are also applying for a Great Stories Club grant on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (GSC TRHT) will be reviewed early, between November 12 – December 7, provided that they are submitted prior to the GSC TRHT deadline of November 16. All other applicants for the Preparation Workshop will be notified of their award status on January 18.
Online Application Link (read Guidelines below before starting a proposal): https://ala.smapply.io/prog/racialhealing/
Questions?
Please carefully review each section of the application guidelines before applying. Contact the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office staff at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 5045, or publicprograms@ala.org.
Table of Contents
I. Program Description
II. Award Information
III. Eligibility
IV. Requirements
V. Application and Submission Information
VI. Application Review
VII. Award Administration Information
VIII. Points of Contact
I. Program Description
Application opportunity
The American Library Association (ALA) invites applications from librarians and library workers who would like to participate in the Preparation Workshop for New Racial Healing Circle Practitioners, which will take place at the Warwick Allerton in Chicago, Illinois on March 21-22, 2019 (agenda). This workshop is being offered in collaboration with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Successful applicants will receive a $400 stipend to offset travel expenses, up to 3 nights’ lodging in Chicago, and complimentary registration for the 2-day workshop including support materials and some meals. Additional expenses such as ground transportation and meals not provided during the workshop must be covered by the participant.
Background
The Preparation Workshop is being offered as part of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT), the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s comprehensive, national and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. TRHT seeks to unearth and jettison the deeply held, and often unconscious, beliefs created by racism – the main one being the belief in a “hierarchy of human value.” ALA is one of the 100 voluntary National Partner Organizations, along with 44 scholars, that participated in the 2016 TRHT design phase. More information about the Kellogg Foundation's TRHT efforts and a downloadable copy of the TRHT Implementation Guidebook are available online at https://healourcommunities.org/.
As a grantee and partner in the Kellogg Foundation’s TRHT process, ALA is implementing a project called the Great Stories Club on Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation. Through this project, ALA will support 125 libraries as they engage more than 5,000 underserved young adults in transformative, humanities-based reading and discussion programming and racial healing sessions.
Tapping into the transformative power of narrative story, TRHT GSC programs will introduce participants to collections of theme-related books; facilitate conversations about questions of race, equity, identity, history, and institutional change that the books explore; and engage teens in “racial healing” circles - an approach that invites story-telling, vulnerability and deep listening. The project seeks to bridge embedded divides and generate the will, capacities and resources required for achieving greater equity and healing, particularly in the lives of young adults facing personal challenges such as detention, incarceration, academic probation, poverty and homelessness.
About the Preparation Workshop
The Preparation Workshop for New Racial Healing Circle Practitioners is an opportunity for library staff who are participating or have applied to participate in ALA’s TRHT Great Stories Club, representatives from the AAC&U’s TRHT Campus Centers, and other interested library professionals to receive information about racial healing circle methodology, participate with peers in a racial healing session, and engage in a session design and co-facilitation process. Workshop activity will take place from 10:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 21 and 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. pm Friday, March 22, at the Warwick Allerton (701 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611).
As championed by the Kellogg Foundation, the racial healing circle process helps us recognize our common humanity, acknowledge the truth of past wrongs and build the authentic relationships capable of transforming communities and shifting our national discourse. Participants in the Preparation Workshop may expect to build skills necessary to engage in a facilitation process in their local community, and will become part of a cohort of newly trained and apprenticing racial healing circle facilitators who are affiliated with ALA & AAC&U.
As further context, applicants are advised to review "Restoring to Wholeness," a publication from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that may help you understand more about what racial healing is and what racial healing circles can help achieve.
II. Award Information
Up to 30 individuals will be selected to participate in the Preparation Workshop for New Racial Healing Circle Practitioners based on the criteria described in Section VI, Application Review.
III. Eligibility
- This opportunity is open to representatives from all types of U.S. libraries (MLIS preferred but not required).
- Participants in the TRHT GSC pilot program, attendees of prior ALA Annual Conference or JCLC “Beyond the Racial Stalemate” sessions, and others who have previously participated in a WKKF-affiliated racial healing circle experience are especially encouraged to apply.
- Late, incomplete and ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
IV. Requirements
Individuals who are selected for support to participate in the Preparation Workshop will be required to:
- Participate fully in the two-day workshop in Chicago, IL, March 21-22, 2019.
- Receive communication from ALA about future opportunities to facilitate racial healing circle experiences in library settings, between April 2019 – March 2020.
V. Application and Submission Information
ALA will accept applications for the Preparation Workshop for New Racial Healing Circle Practitioners between October 19, 2018 and January 4, 2019. If you are also a TRHT GSC grant applicant, please submit your application for the Preparation Workshop by November 16 to receive early review and notification.
Getting Started
To begin the application process, go to https://ala.smapply.io/prog/racialhealing/.
To apply for the Preparation Workshop for New Racial Healing Circle Practitioners, you must complete the following steps:
- Register for an account
- Confirm your email address
- Log in
- Complete the application form
- Applicant contact information
- Applicant demographic information
- Proposal narrative
- Confirmation of financial obligation
- Upload supporting materials
- Applicant résumé
- Letter(s) of support (optional)
- Certify authorization
- Review and submit your applicatio
Register for an account
PPO is using a new application system for this round of Great Stories Club grants. You will need to create a new account, even if you already have an account on https://apply.ala.org/.
Go to the application site here: https://ala.smapply.io/prog/racialhealing/
Click the Register link at the top of the screen. On the screen that follows, you may create an account using your email address, or if you prefer, using an existing Facebook, Google, or Twitter account.
Confirm your email address
You will receive an email from the SurveyMonkey Apply site asking you to confirm your email by clicking on a link. (If you do not see this message, please check your junk mail folder; if you still do not see it, please contact publicprograms@ala.org for assistance.)
Log in
At any time after creating your account, you can log in at https://ala.smapply.io/. After logging in, you can click View Programs on your account home page or navigate to https://ala.smapply.io/prog/racialhealing/ to find the application for this opportunity. To begin your application, click the Apply button on the right-hand side of the page.
Complete the application form
On the next screen, you will see a list of the tasks that comprise your application: the application form, the upload form for your résumé, and the upload form for letters of support. Click Complete Application to start the application form.
Workshop participant information
On the first screen, you will enter contact information for the person who is applying to attend the Preparation Workshop. Please provide all information requested. Note that the information provided in response to demographic questions will be used exclusively for two purposes: to inform and support selection of a diverse group of learners during the application review process, and if your application is approved, to create dyads/pairings for workshop activities. This information will not be shared outside of the application review and workshop planning team.
Proposal narrative
The proposal narrative consists of four sections (described immediately below). Please note that each section of the narrative may not exceed 500 words. The narrative sections are as follows:
- Please tell us why you are interested in participating in the Preparation Workshop for New Racial Healing Circle Practitioners. What about the idea of racial healing resonates with you, why do you feel inspired to learn more and become involved in facilitating racial healing work in your community, and how do you hope to use the training received in your library/community?
- In American history, there have been structural barriers to equal treatment and opportunity within the economic, legal, educational, and residential components of communities. Tell us about the current realities of race relations within your community and any local history that has led or contributed to these realities.
- Has your library offered any previous programming or engaged in any community efforts to address the current realities of race relations in your community? If so, please tell us about those activities, your role in implementing them, and the impact they've had.
- Do you have any specific training, professional experience, or other skills that you believe are particularly relevant to your potential to serve as an effective racial healing circle facilitator/practitioner? (E.g., prior dialogue facilitation training, coursework in counseling, volunteer work in mental health or therapeutic settings, etc.) If so, please describe. If you participated in ALA’s Great Stories Club series on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, and/or the ALA-sponsored conference sessions titled “Beyond the Racial Stalemate” (Annual Conference 2017 and 2018; JCLC 2018), please include that information here as well.
Upload the workshop participant’s résumé
From the menu of tasks on the left side, select Workshop Participant Résumé. Use the uploader to attach this file.
Upload letter(s) of commitment (optional)
If you have letters of support from your library administration, board, and/or a community organization that you would like to share with application reviewers, you may attach them here. This upload is strictly optional.
Certify Authorization to Submit Application
An application to host a Great Stories Club series is an application for an award from the ALA. ALA is required by law to ask applicants to identify for each application a certifying official who is authorized to submit applications for funding on behalf of the organization.
To complete this section, you must enter all of the information that is requested.
Review and submit
When you have completed these tasks, click the Review and Submit button to go over your work, and then click Submit at the bottom of that page. Note: if your application is not submitted, it will not be considered. You will receive email confirmation for your submission.
VI. Application Review
Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Clarity and completeness of the application. Has the applicant supplied all required information, including all sections of the proposal narrative and supporting materials?
- Applicant’s commitment to advancing racial equity and social justice within the library profession, as demonstrated by prior experience in community programming/community engagement efforts.
- Applicant’s vision for facilitating racial healing work in their community, following the Preparation Workshop.
- Prior engagement in a WKKF-affiliated racial healing circle, or other comparable experience.
- Prior experience, education or training likely to support racial healing work, including dialogue facilitation, cultural competency training, and counseling/social work.
Another factor that will influence the final selection of participants is the overall racial, ethnic, gender, age, and geographic diversity of the Workshop Participant cohort. The selection team would like to engage a cohort of learners that is as diverse as possible.
Applicants are encouraged to address questions about the selection guidelines, process, and requirements to the ALA Public Programs Office at 1-800-545-2433, ext. 5045, or publicprograms@ala.org.
Review and selection process
Each application will be assessed by members of ALA’s TRHT GSC National Advisory Committee, TRHT GSC Implementation Team, and staff from ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ODLOS) and Public Programs Office (PPO). All applicants will be notified of their award status on January 18, 2019.
VII. Award Administration Information
Application deadline: January 4, 2019, 11:59 pm (CST)
Award notification: Friday, January 18, 2019
Agenda and travel information distributed: Week of January 21, 2019
VIII. Points of Contact
If you have questions, contact: Public Programs Office American Library Association 1-800-545-2433, ext. 5045 publicprograms@ala.org