We are excited to bring you another special edition of Check On Your Neighbor, a project of the Rural Assembly that invites you to email or call a friend and ask them how they are doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this short video, Whitney Kimball Coe, Director of the Rural Assembly checks on her friend Peyton Eastman, Program Director & Children’s Librarian/ E.G. Fisher Public Library in Athens, TN.
Want to read more on the critical role libraries play in rural communities and how they are responding and adapting in the time of COVID-19? Check out these recent pieces from The Daily Yonder and The Atlantic:
“Rural Libraries Face Dramatic Choices as Some States Begin to Reopen,” by Tracy Staley in The Daily Yonder
“The Post-pandemic Future of Libraries,” by Deborah Fallows in The Atlantic
“Public Libraries’ Novel Response to a Novel Virus,” by Deborah Fallows in The Atlantic
You can find more stories from our neighbors here. Ready to check on your neighbor? Find out more information about the project and share your conversation with us via the form below the video. “a
Have you found yourself wondering how an old friend or acquaintance is doing during this remarkable, uncertain time in our nation?
We would like you to join us in checking on our neighbors. It’s easy to participate.
- Choose someone you don’t talk to often and reach out over phone, email, facebook, or text. It could be a friend from college, a neighbor down the street, an old colleague.
- Ask them some questions. Try one or two of these: How is today different than a month ago? How is this situation affecting your work? How are you keeping your spirits up? What do you or the people in your work need right now? Or simply ask, how are you doing? Ask them to send you a photo that illustrates their current life.
- Send us a few sentences (or a few paragraphs!) below about what you heard in your conversation. Not sure what to share? Check out some examples from checking in with our neighbors here.
- Ask them to pay it forward and check in with their neighbor. Send them the link to this page so they can send us some information on their conversation.
