Create a community library with Encanto

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklistto help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Tell the story

Learning about communities

1. Gather everyone together in a circle. Ask everybody about the story of Encanto and if anyone’s seen the film.
2. You could chat about the Family Madrigal, how they help their community with their unique gifts to overcome challenges.
3. If you’re able to, play ‘All of You’ from the Encanto soundtrack.
4. Now, chat about how in the film the community that The Madrigals are a part of, join together to help rebuild the Casita. As it is to The Madrigals, community is important to us. We’re all part of different communities and they support us in different ways.
5. Discuss the different communities everyone in their group may have. They might think about their Scouts community, school community, their neighbours, anywhere they volunteer or attend regularly, other extracurricular activities, or other local communities of which they are a part.

Choosing a community for your library

1. Explain that it’s important for everyone to feel and be a part of these communities, as we’re stronger as a team. An important part of a community is what we do for others.
2. Tell everyone that lots of different people make up a community. Each one offers lots of different things. Some people help to keep us safe, some give us things to do and some help us learn.
3. It’s good to do something to give back to the community. One way we can do this in Scouts is with a small community library - a small collection of books, or other items to share within a chosen community.
4. As a group, decide who could be your chosen community. It could be your Scout section or your wider Scout group. It could even your wider, local area community if you’ve somewhere to store your library safely.

Creating your library

1. Before creating your own little library, it may be useful to take a trip to your local library to learn more about the services offered there. Don't forget to follow your off site visits procedures.
2. Libraries have much more than physical books. They often contain local archives, assist the public in accessing government schemes and funds and run early years learning programmes. Lots of libraries can provide you with access to thousands of e-books, e-magazines, audiobooks and DVDs, or even toys too!
3. Your library doesn’t need to just be books. You may also want to make a library of toys, films or CDs, which people can use and bring back.
4. If you live near a beach, you could also create a library of beach toys for people to use while on the beach, too.
5. Ask everyone to think about what they'd like to share in their library.
6. Remind everyone, including parents and carers, not to donate anything of sentimental or treasured value. This is a selection of books, or other items, that people can come and borrow from, or even add to themselves. Items will be taken and swapped within the community, so books, or anything else you donated, won’t necessarily be returned. 

Building your library and stocking the shelves

1. Your little library could be housed in anything from an upcycled book shelf or a storage box to an old shoe rack or a trolley. Make sure to choose a container that can be easily stored at your meeting place and make sure to create something to label it. Why not use the bright colours from Encanto to decorate your library?
2. Invite the group to bring in a book, or chosen item, that they’d like to share with the section. If someone doesn’t have a copy or they don’t want to lend out their copy, they could also look for second-hand copies at local charity shops or online.
3. Remember, cost may be a barrier for some people. One option would be for your section or group to buy a selection of books, or other chosen items. They could be sources from a charity shop, supermarket, book shop or online for everyone to use and choose from.

Celebrating and sharing the items in the library

1. Using a piece of white card, cut out a rectangle that's slightly longer than the length of your book. This can be used as a bookmark or tag.
2. Everyone should write the title and author of the book, or the name of the item, at the top of their bookmark or tag. Then everyone should draw or write how the item makes them feel, as well as add their first name and the date to the bookmark or tag.
3. People should then add the bookmark or tag to their item.
4. When ready, put all the items into the library. Your library’s now open for lending!
5. Everyone should choose an item, take it home and explore it. Once they’ve finished, they can add their thoughts and feelings to the bookmark, sign and date it, and return the book for others to enjoy.
6. Your Scout volunteer team can decide how to operate the library and if items need to be signed in and out, as well as how long they can be borrowed for. You could even create library cards and ask for regular donations to the library, too.

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