Sacred Being

Earlier this month, 3 NFLS-area librarians and I went to Sun Prairie for training on the Wakanheza Project™. The Wakanheza Project™ is an initiative/concept started by the Ramsey County Public Health Department (in Minnesota) as a community-level primary prevention approach to addressing family violence, and it has many ideas that are useful in any situation.

Wakanheza is the Dakota word for child, and its English translation is "sacred being." The Wakanheza Project™ includes principles and strategies that can positively effect the way we see and treat each other. If the culture of an organization can shift a little to incorporate and internalize some of these principles and strategies, there is enormous potential for benefits. These can include more peaceful circulation desk lines, better interactions between adults and teens, and less embarrassment for parents who are struggling to parent in public. Overall, we are striving to help create an even more welcoming environment for patrons, and an easier and more rewarding work environment for all staff.

The workshop we attended was designed to help us bring back the Wakanheza Project™ ideas to our own systems. We will be sharing information on Little Nic Bits, as well as doing smaller, more informal trainings. It’s our hope to do a larger workshop in fall or spring of 2012.

Thank you to Sandy Kallunki (Brown County), Julie Spillane (Oconto Falls) and Kristie Wilson (Shawano) for participating in this training! If you have questions about this for any of us, please don’t hesitate to ask!