City of Belen (Belen Public Library)

The Belen Public Library in Belen, New Mexico, will create public programming to engage the community in self-improvement opportunities as tools for recovery from COVID-19 pandemic experiences. The library will create educational and interpretive programming to address needs across age groups and social, cultural, and ethnic demographics. Organized programming will include weekly family yoga for mind and body health classes and biweekly socials targeted at teens. To support those whose employment was impacted by the pandemic, the library will offer a program on job opportunities in the post-COVID economy, followed by biweekly open labs on résumé writing and how to submit job applications online. The library will organize a community event to create a pandemic time capsule and a community-based museum exhibit with COVID-19 memories and ephemera, contextualized with information and objects from the 1917 flu epidemic.