The Santa Clara City Library staff identified an ongoing challenge with teens and their desire to provide library programs. The library receives several program proposals a month from teens that would like to present a workshop to our community, but we do not have the staff nor capacity to accommodate all requests. Faced with this challenge, we saw an opportunity to codesign with our teen community to create Teens Teach, where programs presented are created collaboratively with our teen experts. The Teens Teach program implements a formalized and streamlined process to evaluate and guide teens to carry out their program proposals by using a one-time program model, with the opportunity to repeat if successful. Teens Teach allows as many teens as possible the chance to be able to facilitate their programs, with the library maintaining our capacity to host and provide a space for learning with them.

Teens Teach is a codesigned program between teens and library staff. This unique and innovative program provides a way for both the presenter and attendees to learn new skills. The Teens Teach presenter(s) develop planning skills, communication skills, and leadership skills when working with a Librarian to facilitate their presentations or workshops. Attendees, ranging from a child to an adult audience, also benefit from the wide range of skills being shared. Teens Teach has helped to fulfill gaps in the library’s teen programming and increased interest in the library from their peers’ demographic. We have also seen that their topics of choice have been popular with the community. Since the start of 2024, the library has been able to host nine program.

• The Teens Teach program has completed 9 events for our community from Jan – Aug 2024
• 30 teens worked with our Teen Librarian to present to more than 165 community members
• 85% of teens shared they learned leadership skills through the program
• Teen programming increased by 50%
• Fostered youth voices by providing a space where teens can codesign with their community
• 100% of programs were built with codesign
• At least 50% of participants claimed an increase in their confidence with robotics, STEM, technology skills, and/or technological tools
• Teens learned to integrate, present, and evaluate information to an audience of teens, and elementary-aged youth
• Teens practice to receive and implement feedback
• Teens practice real-world job skills by having to apply and interview
• Teens are exposed to marketing practices
• 80% of teens learned to collaborate with presenters and staff in a community setting
• The library was able to provide programming on trending topics