Youth for a Livable Cebu: #BEYONDBOOKS

#BeyondBooks equips teachers and educators with public libraries and spaces, bridging gaps and creating opportunities for creative and innovative education.

In developing countries today, little to no value is being put in libraries and learning in general. Education is viewed as a prerequisite for work or as an economic and survival necessity, and not as a human enrichment and social learning experience. And much like the rest of the developing democratic countries, the Philippines is comprised of marginalized and underserved communities, where there’s already a lack of schools and classrooms that can accommodate students, more so resources for creative and innovative learning platforms and spaces. The huge literacy gap serves as a challenge for these communities to take advantage of the new economic opportunities, where creativity and critical thinking are deemed as important skills, especially as the rest of the world enters the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Through collaborative efforts with the local governments and creative stakeholders, Youth for a Livable Cebu #BEYONDBOOKS turns public libraries and spaces into opportunities that nurture learning, and foster curiosity and creative experiences in the arts, culture, and sciences. It gives life to dying institutions, such as libraries, enabling these spaces, and opening up more venues where everyone has equal access to education, new learning experiences, and technology. With constant work and efforts in space revitalization through innovative learning activities, the Cebu City Public Library has been transformed to a 24/7 library just last March 2018, the only library that’s always open in the Philippines and in the ASEAN region. More than a source for reliable information, the program turns the library into a creative and innovation center where everyone has access, enabling local teachers and educators, especially in public schools, to have shared spaces and resources to enrich the current curriculum in the country.

While public school teachers and educators struggle for innovation, the initiative equips them with the technology, network, and community, as it adds more value to public libraries and spaces in the underserved communities through the transformation of these spaces. More than just reading and storing books, libraries become spaces for experiential learning through arts and crafts activities, film screenings, and workshops. More than just places to meet and gather, public spaces become spaces for creative education and community engagement through communing and gathering in a space that's open for all. It continues to work on changing the perspective of the role of public libraries and spaces in our community, from a reading space into a learning space that plays an active role in citizen formation.

Youth for a Livable Cebu #BeyondBooks transforms public spaces into learning spaces that promotes creative experiences in the arts, culture, and sciences. And since these creative experiences are in public spaces, it gives equal access, especially to the underserved communities, adding a free-for-all venue for public school teachers and educators that can cater to the creative and innovation gaps. In the process, it breathes new life to abandoned buildings and spaces through activities like local film screenings, pop-up telescopes, projection art mapping, which transforms mindsets and perspectives about the massive creative and educational potential of these spaces.

With the evident gap in knowledge and innovation, people are exposed to new technologies without enough orientation to its potential and impact, especially in the underserved communities. As part of the initiative, digital literacy and responsible digital citizenship programs equip public school teachers and educators to create responsible digital natives, through the train-the-trainers program. And through #BeyondBooks, the Cebu City Public Library was the first to introduce a virtual reality and augmented reality experience in a public library.

As we continue to innovate through activities, Youth for a Livable Cebu #BeyondBooks aims to further increase foot traffic from 2015 to present. It also seeks to pivot to a more sustainable model that can be a template for other public libraries and spaces to follow suit. This opens up more areas for learning, makes innovative experiences more accessible in the Philippine region, and, finally, acts as an enrichment program that may be a beneficial tool for the public school teachers and educators, especially in the far-flung island provinces.

As the program continues to run, we envision better space planning of public libraries and spaces, with properly allocated funding. There will be better sectioning of areas that create better accessibility and inclusivity, as well as dedicated spaces that will equip and enable creative learning, such as music rooms, makerspaces, and the like. This will encourage curiosity and creativity, even to the underserved communities who would not normally have these types of opportunities. This is aimed at nurturing their potential and different learning styles.

By developing a kit with a two-pronged approach: programming and space planning, along with training of internal staff and constant updated activities tailored to different interests, this will entice local teachers and educators with a brand new space that's open for all and creativity and innovation is welcome and encouraged. Library clients and visitors, who would normally be at the malls, would then have a safe third place. The kit will be deployed and launched through a geographic expansion, inviting locals to visit the public library or space, and eventually capturing them with regular programs that fit their needs.

Since the program started in 2015, it has served more than 30,000 learners, in collaboration with more than 20 partners from local government units, institutions, art communities, and the like. After the launch of the 24/7 operations, the library attendance has increased from 260 visits per day to more than 2,000 visits daily. Through the library’s reading program, grade school students have had increased in grades and a better learning experience. By collaborating with local film animators, the library also hosted the first ever animated film screening in the local language.

In the next 12 months, we expect a 200% increase in library attendance as we connect to the rest of the public libraries and spaces in the Cebu province through the different activations. With better connected public libraries, we expect a rise of interest about the library, and a start of changed perspective.

In three years, we envision changed lifestyles with a new understanding of the role of libraries in the community. We foresee the library as a game changer, as it will be the top pick for learning and innovation, a third place, outside homes and schools.

With combined efforts, our team, comprised of an educator, a business development specialist, a marketing manager, and a trashion artist, continues to establish connections and partnerships that nurture collaborations with the rest of the community. The nature of Youth for a Livable Cebu: #BeyondBooks works closely with multiple stakeholders and partners. Through a healthy and enthusiastic collaboration with local communities, the program grows, scales, and creates lasting positive impact.

Through circular economy, the program creates revenues from private partnerships and workshops with door fees and activity registration fees. The profits fund the regular activations in the public spaces where participants from underserved communities gain free access to activities, such as art workshops, simple robotics workshops, along with free materials. It also funds for the developing and launching of the kit to the different cities in the Cebu province.

Because the Youth for a Livable Cebu:#BeyondBooks program aims to bridge the gap of knowledge and innovation in the underserved communities, it helps to have access to MIT-backed community, possibly share best practices, and gain mentorship that can fine tune the program, validate it, and measure impact, apart from the helpful prize funding. Especially considering the primarily academic environment, it would help to have insight on the best enrichment programs that bridge creative and innovation gaps.

While the program runs regularly with different activations, it aims to create a better and more measurable impact in the participants, apart from the library attendance. To make it sustainable, more and regular partnerships, collaborations, and funding will also be needed. Through Solve, we will get access to mentorship that can help drive change that fits the needs of the community, calibrate impact metrics, and eventually, futureproof the program.