When we started planning workshops, we assumed schools were the obvious venue. Schools have classrooms, students, and science teachers. They also have crowded calendars, approval processes, and an audience limited to one enrollment area.
Public libraries turned out to be a better fit for almost every reason we cared about.
Trust is already established
Families do not need to be persuaded that a library is a safe place for their children to spend two hours. That trust took decades to build, and a new organization borrows it simply by showing up in the building.
The audience is naturally mixed
A library draws from a wider radius than any single school, across neighborhoods and income levels. Our sessions ended up more economically and geographically diverse than a school-based program would have been.
Staff know how to run programs
Librarians run children's programming constantly. They understand registration, room setup, accessibility, and how to communicate with families. Their operational knowledge saved us from a long list of avoidable mistakes.
The advice
If you are starting a community education program, walk into your local branch and ask about their program calendar. The conversation is usually short and the answer is usually yes, which is not true of most institutional partnerships.