The Capstone Team needed feedback to help them increase family engagement and provide culturally competent services to Spanish speaking families. The Team lacked the capacity to carry out a culturally responsive public engagement process to gather community feedback and input. The library took the opportunity to pilot a Public Engagement service using staff trained through the International Association of Public Engagement and Center for Public Deliberation.

The key element of this project was the time dedicated to create connections and build trust within the Latinx community. An advisory team of experts was convened to assist in the creation of a culturally responsive process that respected the values, beliefs and norms of the Latinx families involved in the project. This project was able to break down silos in the community. The library staff provided safe space for families to share honest feedback.

Results of interviews and focus groups were presented to the Capstone Team. In response, the Team created a list of items they could work on immediately to create a more culturally competent process and will reconvene to work on long term goals. “The benefit of this process was to create conversation – bringing expertise into one room. It created new relationships,” said a Team member. “I appreciate the chance to be heard,” said a Latinx family member.