CURRENT POSITION Youth Services Librarian, Pasadena Public Library, CA DEGREE MLIS, San José State University, CA, 2010 FOLLOW @missjanegov (Twitter and Instagram); linkedin.com/in/janegov; pasadena-library.net/teens Photo by Alfonso Huerta

Teens Level Up

Jane Gov believes that “to really understand what teens want, they must be involved in the planning.” This is the foundation for the Teen Volunteer and Teen Advisory Board (TAB) programs, which enhance opportunities for teens to develop their leadership skills and gain autonomy over aspects of their community. The programs’ goal is to be strategic in how the library utilizes the skills of volunteers, and to support a team that doesn’t only give advice and assist with library activities, but creates ideas and makes them happen. 

The TAB vision overlaps with that of the levelUP Youth Conference, first held in 2017, where topics covered were based on feedback from the teens. These initially included college readiness, workforce development, and life skills workshops—financial literacy, cooking, and health. In recent years the focus has been on mental health and trauma-informed care, community activism, social justice, sustainability, and how to advocate using media.

This year TAB received a grant for $74,500, which will support goals that include establishing a citywide narrative on mental health, sustaining well-being education into the future, distributing Well-being Education Kits for educators and youth leaders for classes and youth groups, and developing an online course for the city’s youth internship programs. Gov is passionate about how these measures allow teens to “see public policy in action, how their ideas are being interpreted, and how  the community responds to their needs. They can also see all the creative possibilities of achieving a vision.”