In celebration of May Mental Health Awareness Month 2019, Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan residents came together under the Vital Village Network to support mental health for all ages by uplifting strategies and developing community engagement activities. 

Parent/caregiver leaders on the planning committee expressed their love of reading and singing with their children as a way to promote their children’s social, emotional, and mental well-being. They asked, “How can we leverage partnerships to uplift storytelling and songs as a social-emotional learning tool for families all over Boston?”

One innovation that emerged from the committee was Children's Mental Health Storytimes co-hosted with Boston Public Library (BPL) branches. These storytimes have been held virtually and at several other BPL branches in response to hearing families identify the need for children’s programming related to social-emotional well-being.

In 2019, we created the first Children's Mental Health Storytimes toolkit: Rhythm and Rhymes. to intended to guide educators, librarians, caregivers, parents, childcare providers, and anyone who wishes to incorporate social and emotional learning practices into their work.

In honor of 5 year anniversary of this innovation, we are seeking community ideas to create an updated Children's Mental Health Storytimes Toolkit: My 'Self' In the World. Please share your ideas via this form or email Desiree.Hartman@bmc.org.