A southwest Missouri library district is working to make free period products more widely available.
Those items as well as diapers and toothbrushes are already available at no cost at one Springfield-Greene County Library District branch. But a $10,000 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Grant from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks awarded Thursday to the district’s foundation, will allow those items to be made available at all branches. Visitors to the Library Station have access to free period products, diapers and toothbrushes.
The effort began with the forming of a four-member committee to figure out what a hygiene station might look like, according to Library Station Branch Manager Kim Flores. One member already had some ideas from writing a paper for her Master’s degree on the supplying of period products in libraries.
Flores said they received a small number of products from a donor. Another donor gave diapers.
"We put our hygiene station at the front of the branch close to the bathrooms so nobody has to ask, nobody has to say anything," she said. "It's just available."
They applied for the CFO grant to expand the program.
Katie Hopkins, planning and development librarian for the Springfield-Greene County Library, pointed out that libraries aren’t just about books. They’re community hubs.
"And at any one time you've got people in our branches who are there helping their children learn, looking for jobs, accessing government or health documents," she said, "I mean, there are a million things that we're helping people find everyday. They shouldn't be prevented or stopped from doing that because they're in need of a period product."
Hopkins said the grant will allow them to provide free period products at all 10 branches.
Projects awarded DEI Grant funds
Here's a complete list of projects and organizations awarded Diversity, Equity and Inclusion grant money Thursday by the CFO:
- American Indian Center of Springfield: $10,000 to support the salary of its cultural liaison, a role providing oversight for operations, classroom management, food pantry support and development of in-depth Native American-friendly curriculum.
- Children’s Center of Southwest Missouri: $6,457 to purchase translation devices, translated materials and culturally diverse comfort items for its centers in Butler, Joplin, Monett and Nevada.
- Drew Lewis Foundation Inc.: $20,000 to support the salary of a bilingual RISE coach to expand the poverty-reduction program’s reach in the Hispanic community in Springfield and southern Missouri.
- EnCompass Academy: $20,675 to train community members from organizations across southern Missouri in trust-based relational intervention to support underserved populations.
- Friends of Abilities First: $11,653 to support certification for an inclusion educator and expanding access to inclusive community spaces in southwest Missouri.
- Leadership Springfield: $6,225 to support translating materials into Spanish to increase access for marginalized communities to its Access Class community leadership program.
- Missouri State University: $18,490 to support the Unifying Nixa Voices program, which supports refugees and newcomers learning the English language in Nixa through quality English-language instruction.
- PFLAG Springfield: $6,500 to provide training from the Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance to its board, staff and volunteers of coalition organizations.
- Springfield-Greene County Public Library Foundation: $10,000 to purchase free-vend period products and dispensers for restrooms at all Springfield-Greene County Library District branches.
- The Rolla Mission: $10,000 to support inclusive and trauma-informed crisis counseling services in partnership with Your Village, a local behavioral health service provider, to individuals experiencing homelessness in Phelps County.
