Family Place

All families need access to resources, information, and support in their efforts to raise healthy and productive children, particularly during the early, most formative years. These efforts are often uncoordinated, aiming at one or another aspect of family or child development and directed at individual families or specific family constituencies rather than the full range of families of very young children.

Public libraries are uniquely well suited to link families to information and education resources within the library, and also to other community services and programs. Moreover, librarians understand that the future success of public libraries may well lie in the library's ability to serve young children and families.

First developed in 1979 in New York, A Family Place provides a specially designed public place for caregivers with young children focused on literacy and education support. The Friends of the Diamond Bar Library is partnering with the Diamond Bar Library to establish such a place for parents and young children at the Diamond Bar Library. We will emphasize the role of the parents as the first teachers of their children. The parents will be taught strategies for healthy child development in a very safe and welcoming environment. It will encourage parent-to-parent support.

The Children's Librarian will partner with local service providers and educators and connect parents with the educational resources and referral information they need during the critical first years of childhood. This Parent-Child Workshop is a 5-week program that involves toddlers and their parents. It will feature local experts (literacy, nutrition, Play/Movement, speech and language development, etc.