The Dauphin County Library System in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has a long history of using TimeSlips to train employees and volunteers working with older adults in their community.

The library system first began outreach programming using TimeSlips in 2019. Their outreach team led TimeSlips creative storytelling sessions at five different care facilities throughout their service area on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, COVID-19 put this on pause. However, more recently, the library system has trained four additional library staff members as TimeSlips facilitators who are currently preparing to get back out in the community.

This spring, the library will deepen its collaboration with TimeSlips by debuting several Creative Care Imagination Kit copies in their library collection. To encourage caregivers in their community to take advantage of the kits, they are also offering library programs to members to show them how to use these kits with their family and friends and introduce them to the other free Friends & Family resources that TimeSlips offers.

Staff at the Library have been inspired by TimeSlips’ Friends & Family resources in other ways too. They are currently prototyping some MadLib-style TimeSlips postcards to send out to isolated older adults in the community to spark some creativity and fun.

Ashley Famularo, the Adult Programming and Outreach Coordinator for Dauphin County Library System, recently had this to say regarding their use of the Friends & Family resources:

“TimeSlips offers so many free resources that I highly encourage people to explore. The free Friends and Family online training is only 45 minutes long and provides new to TimeSlips a great overview of TimeSlips and creative engagement.”

Famularo continued, “if you do not have the staffing or time to run TimeSlips Creative Engagement programs, The Creative Care Imagination Kits are a great tool to add to your library collection. The kits provide your patrons with all of the tools they need to try our TimeSlips’ creative engagement activities for free with their family and friends!”

Famularo also recommends that other libraries interested in starting a TimeSlips program reach out to community partners and organizations to help build excitement and develop new ways to collaborate. After hearing about their work with TimeSlips, the local Alzheimer’s Association Chapter contacted the library, and now a partnership is in the works to offer support services for caregivers in tandem with our TimeSlips programs.

TimeSlips looks forward to a continued partnership with Famularo and the entire Dauphin County Library System and hopes other libraries will consider using the Friends & Family resources as part of their outreach and programming for older adults and caregivers in their communities. 

If you are a library professional interested in learning more about how to bring TimeSlips to your community, you are invited to attend a free webinar for library professionals on Tuesday, April 5th from 10:30-11:30 AM CT/11:30-12:30 PM ET. The webinar is free to attend, but advance registration is required. Learn more here.

If you can not attend the webinar but would like to learn more about the Friends & Family resources, please contact Andrew Morton, Project Manager-Friends & Family Resources, at andrew@timeslips.org