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Kids and Teens are �Patrons, Too: �Restorative Justice and Trauma-Informed Approaches in Public Libraries

Jessica M. F., Teen Reference Librarian

June M, Youth Reference Librarian

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Who we are!

Jessica

Worked as a middle and high school teacher in schools around the U.S.
Joined the library in 2022
Still loves working with tweens and teens!

June

Worked in a shelter for teens experiencing homelessness
Got into libraries, working at a big downtown library

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Here’s where we work!

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Agenda

Understanding Exclusionary Policies
Trauma-Informed Library Services
Restorative Justice Practices in Libraries
Actionable Strategies for Staff

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Understanding Exclusionary Policies

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Impact on Marginalized Youth and Teens

Case studies show that Black, Latine, immigrant, and high-needs youth and teens face harsher consequences than white youth teens

More likely to be surveilled, arrested, harmed, or physically removed from libraries

Libraries often discourage group behavior and expressions of joy as “disruptive”

Even though social interactions are crucial for the healthy social-emotional development of youth and teens

Rules are sometimes inconsistently applied based on staff biases, leading to distrust and disengagement among youth.
Patron incident reporting systems can lead to suspensions and bans.
Social interactions are crucial for youth & teen development, yet libraries often discourage group behavior to maintain order.

�Davey, Kendra, et al. “A Different Kind of Light: Restoring the Library Community Through Trauma-Informed Services: The Path to Trauma-Informed Justice for Teens Is Not Always Straight and Narrow.” Young Adult Library Services, vol. 19, no. 1, Fall 2020, pp. 29–33. ��Gibson, Amelia N. and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. “‘Maybe She’s Just Strict to Everybody’: Race, Belonging, and Surveillance in the Library.” The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, vol. 93, no. 3, July 2023, pp. 277–293, doi.org/10.1086/725068.�

Gibson, Amelia N., et al. “Navigating ‘Danger Zones’: Social Geographies of Risk and Safety in Teens and Tweens of Color Information Seeking.” Information, Communication & Society, vol. 26, no. 8, June 2023, pp. 1513–30. EBSCOhost, doi-org.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/10.1080/1369118X.2021.2013920.

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CUSTOMER SERVICE

Focus: Providing compassionate, safe, and empowering service by recognizing the impact of trauma

TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE (TJ)

Focus: Changing systems that produce harm

RESTORATIVE �JUSTICE (RJ)

Focus: Repairing harm within existing systems

Healing- Centered Justice

Compassionate Accountability

Empowered Healing

Community–Centered Justice

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“Consider what it means to espouse a philosophy that holds young adults as a distinct and valuable group with their own needs and uses of the library, and then to create policies that implicitly preserve adult comfort or adult ideas of what the library should be used for.”�

Anastasia M. Collins, Academic Librarian

in “Notes from the Other Young Adult Librarian: Considering Restorative Justice and Structural Oppression in Teen Services,” Young Adult Library Services

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Group Discussion Activity

Uncover the "Why"

What are the desired outcomes of existing library rules and expectations?�

Identify Implicit Biases

What implicit biases are present in library policies?

Mitigate Harm

How can we promote clarity and collaboration with existing rules while ensuring fairness and inclusivity for youth and teens?

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Trauma-Informed Librarianship

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PLA: How to be trauma informed

Reflect

Consider cultural and historical issues

Protect

Promote Safety

Connect

Focus on relationship building

Respect

Engage in choice and collaboration

Reflect- Consider Cultural and Historical Issues (how does this person's identity influence how I read this situation? is this someone who seems like they might get harassed a lot? what has worked well for the teen in the past. who can help? Can I call in any staff or peers? How am I feeling? Am I going to respond with emotion or practicality?

Protect- Promote Safety (and going beyond safety – privacy, dignity, comfort). A lot of this comes down to being neutral and professional to protect privacy and dignity. Thank you, we’ll work on it. What is my role, how can I stay in my role?
Connect- Focus on Relationships (learn names, greet kids when they enter the library). People are always welcome. Their behaviors are not. Creative problem solving. Speak only for yourself. It makes me uncomfortable when you swear. Autonomy. Letting kids choose, even little things. You are free to do what you want, but here there are rules.
Respect- Engage in Choice and Collaboration. The library is worse when kids aren’t here. It’s boring. The library is a better place because you’re here. You tell me how to do my job well. Teens hold me accountable.

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Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Safety
Trustworthiness and transparency (!)
Peer support (!)
Collaboration and mutuality
Empowerment, voice, and choice
Cultural, historical, and gender issues

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Restorative Justice Practices in Libraries

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Restorative Justice Practices

A set of principles and processes that focus on repairing harm, restoring relationships, and fostering accountability rather than solely relying on punishment. ��These practices emphasize dialogue, community involvement, and personal responsibility. They allow those who have caused harm to understand the impact of their actions and work collaboratively with those affected to make things right.

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Restorative Approaches

Community-building Circles

Programming applications

Teen Volunteer Club�

Restorative Conversations�
Restorative Agreements & Repair Plans�
Restorative Re-entry Meetings

Explore examples of restorative approaches that promote accountability and trust rather than punishment.��Community-building Circles: Regularly scheduled discussions encourage youth to voice their concerns, celebrate successes, and strengthen relationships. At SH, monthly Teen Volunteer Club.��Restorative Conversations – See Restorative Conversation Template in Handouts

Instead of immediately issuing consequences for misbehavior, staff engage the youth in a one-on-one conversation using open-ended questions:

"What happened?"
"What were you thinking at the time?"
"Who was affected, and how?"
"What can be done to make things right?"

This approach helps youth save face, reflect on their actions, take responsibility, and collaborate on solutions that work in a library environment.��Restorative Agreements & Repair Plans

Instead of suspensions or bans, youth who break rules can create an action plan to make amends.

Example: If a teen disrupts a study area, they could agree to help set up a quiet space for others.

These agreements focus on learning from mistakes and repairing harm rather than exclusion.��Restorative Reentry Meetings (for returning banned youth)

Scenario: A teen who was previously banned from the library for fighting wants to return. Instead of an automatic reinstatement, they attend a reentry meeting with staff. (Not the formal re-entry phone call with the Safety Supervisor, but an authentic conversation with branch leaders).
Process:

The teen discusses what led to the ban.
Staff explain library expectations and ask how they can support the teen.
A simple agreement is made (e.g., “If I feel frustrated, I’ll take a break outside instead of arguing”).

Why it works: It ensures the teen understands expectations and feels supported rather than just punished.
In more structured environments like schools, these processes can be required.�
BUT this requires the patron to opt-in. It works in conjunction with traditional library safety plans.
The person/people who were the target of the behavior can be invited to this process, but it may not be practical in library situations.

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Actionable Strategies for Staff

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Bring Restorative Justice Practices to Your Branch

Balance control and support

Connect before you correct�

Respect youth and teens as any other patrons�
Discuss issues directly and offer options�
Encourage youth and teens to consider the ramifications of their actions�
Base rules on respectful sharing of spaces

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Reimagining Youth Justice

Consider that calling the police may do more harm than good�
Young people deserve support, not surveillance�
Accountability is a learning process, not a punishment�
Healing-centered environments matter�
Justice work is collective and ongoing

Consider that calling the police may do more harm than good. For many youth—especially Black, Latine, Indigenous, disabled, undocumented, or LGBTQ+ teens—police presence can escalate harm rather than resolve it. Transformative justice offers alternatives grounded in safety and care.

Young people deserve support, not surveillance. Libraries can shift from punitive responses to restorative, relationship-centered approaches that recognize youth as full community members—not problems to manage.

Accountability is a learning process, not a punishment. When teens cause harm, they need opportunities to reflect, grow, and make amends—with guidance from trusted adults and peers, not threats or removal.

Healing-centered environments matter. Trauma-informed, community-based responses help teens feel emotionally safe and respected, especially those who have experienced harm at school, at home, or in public systems.

Justice work is collective and ongoing. There is no script. Library staff can build trust and belonging by co-creating behavioral norms with youth, learning from mistakes, and investing in relationships over rules.

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Inclusive Communication

Open ended questions

Kindly inform, enforce with choice

Avoid commanding language

Being mindful of nonverbal cues

Incident debrief after!

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Youth Centered Spaces

Getting out of the way

Naturally occurring relationships

Youth as Program Evaluators

Treat systems not symptoms

Usually, I check politics at the door, but that’s not really possible here. I want to build youth-centered libraries. My goal is not to come off as a cop to these kids. These kids are young, but we can still see how they react to the police when they come in. We hear these kids talking about ICE. I want to be able to work with kids, not against them. It’s better for both of us that way. If I come off as a cop, I’m working against kids.

So, what I want to do is even out the power dynamics. Leave my ego out of it. Check in with myself before setting any boundaries. Am I closer to coming off as an authoritarian figure or as a community member?

Let kids play! Let kids teach other kids. I don’t have to be the source of information. This is a good way to move away from hierarchy. If the library belongs to all of us, not just those in power.

Getting out of the way with naturally occurring relationships, big sisters, parents, aunts, uncles, and mentors. Bringing them into programs. This helps us move away from the deficit mindset.

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Building Systemic Change

Building institutional trust and transparency to create safer libraries

“You’re only as sick as your secrets.”

Drop-in programs as TIC

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Living our Values

Strengths bases approaches

Avoiding power struggles

Explaining rules

Being okay with repetition!

Finding ways to introduce RJ

From PLA workbook;�· See how guidelines all overlap when it comes to collaboration, empowerment, and relationships, and focus there�· How can we emphasize these values in our libraries�

Open-ended instruction

There’s no right way - How do you want it to go?

Strengths-based approaches

I see you’re good at/ passionate about...

Avoiding power struggles

Walking away, getting help - another situation where bias can cloud judgment. Helping other staff get breaks.

Explaining rules

No assumptions about what kids know and don't know, helping young people understand “you should know better”

Being okay with repeating ourselves

Repetition breaks cycles of trauma

Anecdotes;

Getting kids to talk to each other during times when they all run up and want to “get each other in trouble."

Getting kids to make a plan for how not to fight each other at the library. Not above staff bribery.

Bringing parents into conversations, letting them be mentors and experts, too. This is hard at an after-school library, but really important.

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What we're asking ourselves right now

How can we make sure that we're making opportunities for every one of our younger patrons to be experts/ evaluators at the library, and not just our regulars?

How can we get all our staff excited about trauma informed or restorative justice interventions?

When we pay attention to the kids who come in every day, who do we miss? Is the squeakiest wheel getting the grease? How do we make sure everyone knows they can walk up to us, ask for a program, make suggestions about the program, etc., not just our regulars? What about younger kids who can't always speak up or get spoken over?

I want to respect the seniority of my coworkers, and I've only been around for a little bit of time. I can't snap my fingers and have 20 years of working in this library. Understanding that not everyone has the same vision for the library and finding a common ground. Weiston-Serdan, bringing forward solutions together – how can we make that happen across a 20-year difference in seniority? I love when stuff is non-hierarchical, but it's hard to get bossed around by an 11-year-old! I can only imagine how hard it is, even at 20 years into my career, with any number of institutional betrayals. I love the Tolley book in the trust section; it talks about how people can be betrayed by their institutions and how hard it can be to rebuild trust from there.

How can we get clear about what our goals are here, or what they aren’t?

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“If the mentoring work we engage in serves only to endorse policies that undermine the humanity of the marginalized and minoritized youth we serve, then we are treating symptoms, not systems.”�

Torie Weiston-Serdan in Critical Mentoring

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In conclusion, it works for us!

We saw a 66% increase in youth and teen programming attendance over the last year.

Our average pop-up program attendance was 10 kids/tweens/teens.

In the 24-25 school year, we had 43 incident reports involving telling youth to leave the library. This is down from 50 incident reports in the 23-24 school year.

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Questions for us?

June

juneeeberry@gmail.com

Jessica

jessicamf1693@gmail.com

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References

Bardoff, Corina. “Homelessness and the Ethics of Information Access.” Serials Librarian, vol. 69, no. 3/4, Oct. 2015, pp. 347–60. EBSCOhost, doi-org.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/10.1080/0361526X.2015.1099590.

Center for the Study of Social Policy. (2021, October 11). Honoring the global Indigenous roots of restorative justice. https://cssp.org/honoring-the-global-indigenous-roots-of-restorative-justice/

Collins, Anastasia M. “Notes from the Other Young Adult Librarians: Considering Restorative Justice and Structural Oppression in Teen Services.” Young Adult Library Services, vol. 16, no. 4, Summer 2018, pp. 15–19. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,uid,url&db=llf&AN=135603246.

Davey, Kendra, et al. “A Different Kind of Light: Restoring the Library Community Through Trauma-Informed Services: The Path to Trauma-Informed Justice for Teens Is Not Always Straight and Narrow.” Young Adult Library Services, vol. 19, no. 1, Fall 2020, pp. 29–33. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,uid,url&db=llf&AN=155136944.

Dixon, E., & Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L. (Eds.). (2020). Beyond survival: Strategies and stories from the transformative justice movement. AK Press.

Gibson, Amelia N. and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. “‘Maybe She’s Just Strict to Everybody’: Race, Belonging, and Surveillance in the Library.” The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, vol. 93, no. 3, July 2023, pp. 277–293, doi.org/10.1086/725068.

Gibson, Amelia N., et al. “Navigating ‘Danger Zones’: Social Geographies of Risk and Safety in Teens and Tweens of Color Information Seeking.” Information, Communication & Society, vol. 26, no. 8, June 2023, pp. 1513–30. EBSCOhost, �doi-org.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/10.1080/1369118X.2021.2013920.

The Public Library Association Social Worker Task Force. (2022). A Trauma-Informed Framework for Supporting Patrons: The PLA Workbook of Best Practices (1^st ed.). ALA Editions.

Mullet, Judy Hostetler. “Restorative Discipline: From Getting Even to Getting Well.” Children & Schools, vol. 36, no. 3, July 2014, pp. 157–62. EBSCOhost, doi-org.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/10.1093/cs/cdu011.

“Restorative Conversations.” Turnaround for Children Toolbox: Engaging in Restorative Conversations with Students, Educational Practice Toolkit 3.8, Turnaround for Children, June 2020, turnaroundusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/RestorativeConversations-WestEd.pdf.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014) SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. store.samhsa.gov/system/files/sma14-4884.pdf

Tolley, Rebecca (2020). A Trauma Informed Guide to Library Service. ALA Editions.

Weiston- Serdan, T. (2017). Critical Mentoring (1^st ed.). Routledge.

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Thank you!