Meet Gia: Our Family Engagement Manager
Gia, thank you so much for joining me today to catch up about the Family Space and all the great work that you do here. Do you mind briefly describing what you do here at Book Harvest?
Yes. I am the Family Engagement Manager. I manage our Family Space and all of our Family Space programming. So that includes our bilingual story times, our kids book club, and then just welcoming families in, making sure that they know what Book Harvest is and what we provide, and making sure that the kids find good books and have a good time, and the family's safe.
So are you a bilingual speaker?
I am. I am fluent in both English and Spanish.
That's awesome. How often do you have to use those skills?
I would say every day, honestly, Durham has a really large Spanish-speaking population, but also because our story times are bilingual. I'm constantly using both to engage with people in the family space, which is really fun.
And you said your role is to make people feel welcome when they come in, so I bet that's really helpful when a family comes in and might speak Spanish, and you are able to welcome them.
Absolutely. You can see people sometimes coming in, looking a bit hesitant or if I do start off saying, “welcome in” or something, they'll ask do you speak Spanish or is there someone that speaks Spanish here? But instead of going to find someone, I can immediately respond and say, yo hablo español. And then you can just see the relief kind of like wash over their body.
So when you started your role at Book Harvest, what were you most excited about?
I was really excited about the organization itself, honestly. I had been searching for literacy adjacent kids organizations for a while, but I was living in Dallas at the time. So when I came across Book Harvest, which was in my hometown, I was really excited. When I first started with the organization and was able to say, yeah, I work at this place that really champions literacy, and they do that by giving out free books.
What drew you to literacy?
My mom was an ESL teacher growing up my whole life, and she also speaks Spanish. She majored in Spanish in college. And she was a big reader. She was always reading something, so she was always reading to us because of that. And then once I got to elementary school, she introduced me to this book called Sugar Plum Ballerinas by Whoopi Goldberg. From there, that kind of just started my literacy journey, my love of reading, I was in like a Harry Potter book club, in elementary school, and then just book clubs throughout middle school and high school. And then once I got to college, even though I majored in psychology and Spanish, I was doing a lot of work in the school system of my college town with reading classes. So whether that was like a dual-language school or just a school that, you know, did most of their instruction in English, I was working with kids on literacy skills. So my love of reading plus working with the kids and getting to see them work through their literacy skills and build their love of reading, that made me even more excited and happy about pushing that for everyone.
The Family Space is a third space. Can you describe what a third space is?
Yes. So a third space is a community area where folks can come. It has a low barrier to entry, meaning it's either free or the cost is very, very low. So Book Harvest, because our Family Space is open to the public, all of our books are free. And folks don't really have to only be there for a set time, they can stay as long as they want to or as short as they want to. I think we do a third space really well because of that.
So when you think about the Family Space, what has been one of the more amazing things that you've seen, maybe in a single visit, or over a period of time, or maybe both.
A lot of firsts sometimes happen in the Family Space. It doesn't happen often, but when it does happen, it's like a diamond in the rough - the most amazing thing you've ever seen. I wasn't here for it specifically, but one of our regular families showed me a video of her second kiddo. Her and her first kiddo had been coming here for a while, then she had a second kiddo, and they came here, and the second kid took their first steps in the Family Space, which is really cool.
I would say something else is just the relationships that are built over time, whether that's with the families and me or just the families and with themselves. We have folks that'll come, the first few times I'll notice that another similar family is there at the same time as them. And then they slowly start talking more, and more and then the next visit, and then more the next visit, and then they finally exchange numbers, and then the next time they come, they've planned to meet up here. That's something that happens pretty frequently and it's really cool to see.
I know you were telling me a story one time where several families ended up catching up and they had built such a strong bond that one of them was actually moving, and they met here for a goodbye party?
Yeah exactly. That was one of our regular families too, so someone that we were really connected with. And so we all kind of, you know, threw a little party. We brought snacks for the kids, and just hung out in one part of the Family Space, and it was really, really, really beautiful to see, because they didn't know each other before Book Harvest. They had built that relationship here and it was strong enough to where we all felt compelled to do something since they were moving away and, you know, kind of felt that loss a little bit. So yeah, that was beautiful.
Right now, a lot of research is showing that parents are feeling the most isolated than they've ever felt. I always find that weird because we have cell phones where you can FaceTime somebody or a lot of ways to contact someone if you need to. But parents are still feeling isolated. How does that make you feel to know that you work in a space that really prevents families from being isolated?
Yeah, it’s really great, I would say it's really nice to see even when they are experiencing that, that they come to Book Harvest because they know that will not be their experience once they come here. And maybe even on their first visit, if they don't know that, I do believe that they leave here knowing that they aren't isolated.
We had a family come last Saturday, actually, who was speaking Italian with her kid, and they were taking some of the books that we had in Italian. She was taking some of the books in Italian off the shelves, and she was saying, just out loud to us, “Oh, yeah, I don't think there's anyone else here that's gonna take them, so we're gonna take them, because, you know, we don't have a large Italian speaking community”. But I told her, actually, we have another mom here who is Italian as well, and she speaks Italian with her kiddo. And she was like, “Oh, my gosh, really? Do you mind if I leave my number? And if you feel compelled, just share it with them and let them know there's another family that speaks Italian, we'd love to connect, because that part of their culture, you know, isn't something that's always maybe reinforced outside”. So, yeah, not feeling isolated and just trying to bring families, whatever connections I see that they have, trying to merge those two together.
What has been something or some things that have just really surprised you since you have been here?
I think how much more the Family Space has become outside of providing books. You know, a lot of folks that'll come in having parent-teacher conferences or maybe just meetups with other people from their school. And I think maybe when I first started, kind of similar to most people who come to the Family Space for the first time, they're like, oh, it provides free books and we can hang out. And that's, you know, like the baseline. But I think seeing how much more it's become outside of that - the parent get-togethers, or adding new storytimes because there's higher demand, or just being a space where families feel like they can have these kinds of conversations with teachers or community members and things like that.
At Book Harvest, we often talk about early relational health. I'm sure you see all sorts of examples throughout your days here that really exemplify early relational health.
Yeah. I would say one of the biggest ways is the parents reading to the kids, honestly. We have a lot of babies that come in, newborn babies, and you'll just see mom or dad with no other kiddo, just the newborn, and they're just laid on one of the couches, babies on the floor on a little play mat, and they're just reading and reading and reading to the baby. Also, through our story times, reading to them, bringing them into the story through our dialogic reading process, and asking about how their experience relates to the book that we're reading, and maybe doing an activity afterwards that's related. So just constantly building on these literacy skills, but also social-emotional skills.
So if a parent came up to you they wouldn't necessarily ask “Can you help me with my early relational health?” But maybe asking you, “what is the best way for me to interact with my child maybe in this space?” Has that ever happened?
Yeah, I would say so. They would ask maybe what do we do? What can we do? And I'm like, you can do anything. Yeah. You can, you know, read to your child or have your child read to you, no matter their age, you can play with the magnet tiles and talk about what you're building and why you're building that. You can use the puppets and play pretend because play is also really a big part of early relational health, and using the kids' creativity to talk and express themselves and learn more about their world. Or you can just hang out and feel the socializing that's happening around you. That's also a big part of it.
So what are your thoughts about making more spaces literacy friendly? Obviously the Family Space is kind of the gold standard but what are your thoughts on other spaces where families go? How do you feel about making them literacy friendly?
There should be books everywhere. I feel like kids have a lot of downtime. And I think people would be surprised with how many kids reach for a book when they are there. You know, we'll have folks that are like, oh, in the Family Space they just want to play. And that's fine, they can play as much as they want. Eventually, the kid will pick up a book, whether it's this visit or the next one. They will pick up a book just purely out of curiosity, whether or not they're reading it. Just the simple fact of them holding a book and knowing that this is what a book is like and this is what it can look like. And maybe they see themselves represented in this book or they're familiar with it because they heard it in school. So I think books should be everywhere. And I think that would do kids and us a lot of good being in a society that really shows books and reading and literacy are so important. And I know this because they're everywhere I go.
You touched upon another thing that's important here at Book Harvest - our philosophy of mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors. And I loved that you just said not only just having books in those spaces, but books that represent somebody that would be picking it up. Also how, they saw something at school or heard something and there's a book about that. So can you talk a little bit about the importance of children being able to see themselves in the books?
Yeah. Not only should books be everywhere, but kids should also know what a book feels and looks like; they should also be able to easily see themselves in a book or see themselves represented, whether that's a character that looks like them, or the book is talking about their culture. Or it's just something kid-friendly, you know, a topic that a kid is really excited about or just feels like readily accessible to them. And I think that is one of the biggest barriers to kids becoming lovers of reading, especially for the older ages. I think having books where kids feel they see themselves and they feel like they can connect with the character and the story naturally will make them want to read those stories more and see what else is out there. So, in the Family Space, we try to have books out constantly on top of the shelf. So when a family, an adult, or a kid walks in, they can immediately scan the room and see maybe there's something that pops out at them where they're like, oh, there's a soccer ball on this cover. Or, oh, I see decorations for Diwali. I want to read this book or, you know, something like that where they can immediately feel that connection and that pull towards that book.
I’m sure sometimes there are kids that come here and might see a book for the first time of somebody that does look different than them, and that's also a very important thing to promote as well.
Yeah, absolutely. We have, and kids love to ask questions. If they do ask, which is really, really great, especially when you have parents that answer and or are willing to find out, figure out the answer for them. So when we do have kids that come in and are like, what does this book say? And the mom or the parent responds, celebrating Diwali. And the kid’s like, what's Diwali? And then, you know, the parent gets to respond, I don't know, let's read to find out or, you know, explain what it is. So not only do we have kids being connected to their own culture and seeing that represented, we do have the kids that are learning about something new, and now they have more cultural awareness of their community and of
other communities too.
That's great. And I know you, with the help of many of your colleagues, you do a lot of great storytimes or events here at the Family Space. Everything from Black History Month to recognizing Mother's Day and Father's Day and other caregivers, it sounds like you guys do a great job of trying to make sure that the space also has events that families can go and feel welcomed, regardless if that is something that they resonate with or they don't know, but they want to learn more about.
Yeah, exactly. All of our events, whether they're culturally specific, or not, like Black History Month, AAPHI Heritage, Pride Month. We try and make sure that everyone knows that they're welcome. We want folks to come and see their cultures represented and embrace and celebrate that. We also want other folks to come in and learn more about the community that we're in. Durham is one of the most diverse communities in the world. And so it's really cool that we get to have these celebrations and have folks feel seen and like they belong. And it's also really cool to see people learn more about other cultures.
If you were meeting a state legislator, or maybe an executive of a financial institution, or a managed care organization, and they were going to say, “Why should I invest in a Family Space?” What would you say?
Hmm. I would say you should invest in a Family Space because investing in our communities is one of the most important things that you can do. And it's equally as important as investing in our children, and along with their developmental skills, like physical ones, fine, and gross motor, literacy skills are just as important. And having spaces like these where, you know, kids maybe start out, mostly working on those developmental and social-emotional learning skills, and then slowly build their way into building those literacy skills. You're creating a fully well-rounded child. So investing in a space like this is investing in those kids. And any kid that would come through the Family Space doors. And that ultimately is one of the most important and amazing things that you could do. You know, that makes kids happier and makes families more relaxed and connected with each other. And it creates families that are then more open to connecting with other families, which leads to parents feeling less isolated, which leads to our communities feeling less isolated. So, it is a great investment. And, I believe it's one of the most important things that we have.
Well, to close out here, what are one, two, three, five things that you're most proud of in terms of your time at the Family Space or things that the team has done?
I will start by saying we have grown. The Family Space first opened in 2022. And I believe in that first year - that was right before I got here - we were only averaging about 200 families or so a month, I believe. Now we're averaging upwards of 500 families a month, which is insane to think about. It's amazing. It's a really crazy number to see after the month is done. So, that is the first thing that comes to mind, just the growth in terms of the families that we're reaching. I will say, not only are we reaching more families, we're reaching a bigger variety of families. You know, we have families that speak Italian and families that are from different countries or have different backgrounds, who maybe didn't grow up in Durham; they're new here. We're just reaching such a wider audience, which is really, really cool to see. The space is, I always call it universal. So it's open to anybody for it regardless.
