Month: April 2020

Helping Local Senior Living Community

~ Sara ~ Leave a comment

Wondering how you and your family can help the community and still be safe? Many of the seniors in our community live alone and are currently quarantined in their apartments in senior living facilities. How about making some Easter/ Spring themed greeting cards to bring cheer to those isolated in their rooms/ apartments? Or put together a small care package of prepackaged goodies/ treats to be distributed to the residences. They cannot see family right now and many don’t have the technology means or skills to video chat so the tiniest gesture would spread a lot of cheer for these residences.  The links below provides some websites to local senior living communities. Some have safe outside drop off so no contact is exchanged with others.  Please call first to find out their policies with regards to receiving outside cards/gifts.

Ashbridge Manor at Downingtown

Simpson Meadows at Downingtown

Five Stars Exton Senior Living

Sunrise Senior Living of Exton

Arbours Square at West Chester

The Hickman Friends Senior Community of West Chester

Sunrise Senior Living of Westtown

 

 

 

Resources for Nonprofits

~ lshupp13 ~ Leave a comment

Looking for ways to sharpen your nonprofit’s skills while working from home? Here are a variety of resources you can use to learn many new skills or hone old ones.

Foundation Center by Candid is offering free access to their Foundation Center Essentials during this time for nonprofits to search for funding opportunities.

This valuable resource includes: 

  • 103,000+ expanded grantmaker profiles
  • 300,000+ key decision makers and leaders
  • Searchable 990s and 990-PDFs
  • FDO Workspace

If you need more in-depth information on a foundation than FDO Essential can provide, please email us at ref@ccls.org and one of our librarians can send you the full Funder Profile from Foundation Directory Online Professional.

Grantspace by Candid is a great place to find training to build your nonprofit skills as well as documents and eBooks related to non-profit topics. Whether you’re looking for help with fundraising, proposal writing, governance, or even starting a nonprofit, they have you covered! Trainings include Introduction to Finding Grants, Introduction to Proposal Writing, and much, much more!

Candid is also offering some other great resources to use that you can access here.

Pennsylvania Associations of Nonprofit Organizations are offering a website with links to webinars, funding resources, and tips for working from home or remotely.

The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University is offering free access to their Video Learning Library.

Kids’ Update: Coloring Sheets and Puzzles

~ clancygirl1 ~ Leave a comment

You probably don’t know that there’s a publisher right here in Chester County! Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. publishes books on all topics, for kids and adults, and they’re located in Atglen. Our friends at Schiffer have a shared their Kids’ Resource Hub with us. Check it out for coloring pages, puzzles, and more!

What would you do if your under-the-bed monster went fishing for a week? Find out in I Need My Monster!

The Youth Services Staff at the Chester County Library and Hankin Branch are presenting Virtual Storytimes beginning April 27th. They will be for three different ages groups — 0 to 2 Year Olds, 3 & 4 Year Olds, and 5 & 6 Year Olds. Registration is required via the Events Calendar at https://chescolibraries.org/. Virtual Storytimes are not registered as multi-week sessions; you will need to register for each storytime individually.

Resources for BUSINESSES during the COVID-19 pandemic – PA CareerLink Chester County

~ Sam Bardarik ~ Leave a comment

To mitigate the spread of the CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19), the PA CareerLink Chester County and United Way Financial Stability Center is currently closed. In the event you need to reach them, you may leave a message at 610-280-1010. They will be checking voicemail and returning messages as soon as possible. Claimants should direct all unemployment claim (UC) inquiries to the Unemployment Office at 1-888-313-7284. Any additional changes to PA CareerLink Chester County’s operating schedule will be posted on their website at https://www.pacareerlinkchesco.org/.

For further employer resources, go to https://www.pacareerlinkchesco.org/job-seekers/downloads/.

Online book clubs for book lovers

~ Book Club Mom ~ 1 Comment

Image: Pixabay

Just because in-person book clubs are on hold, that doesn’t mean you have to stop talking about the books you’ve read. Celebrities, athletes and regular readers are out there ready to talk. Here are some online options for book clubs to keep that conversation going.

Addicted to YA on Goodreads

The Andrew Luck Book Club

Oprah’s Book Club

Poppy Loves Book Club

Reese’s Book Club – Hello Sunshine

Want a smaller group with people you know? You can create your own Facebook group and add your reading friends. If you have a website, designate a page for book discussions. Or start a free website on WordPress.com or Wix.com. Even a group chat on your phone can be a fun way to run a book discussion.

Are you in a book club? What adjustments have you made? What book do you want to talk about? Leave a comment – we’d love to hear from you!

Applying for public assistance – video guide from MCHC

~ Sam Bardarik ~ Leave a comment

Maternal and Child Health Consortium (MCHC) has created a video to help guide individuals looking for help to file for public assistance/benefits, like Health Insurance, SNAP Benefits enrollment, and Cash assistance. Their staff members are ready to assist individuals. During this difficult time, they are enrolling individuals on a daily basis. Families just need to reach out.

The information in the video is also available in Spanish.

Teen Update: Daily Practice for SAT

~ svirginiaroyf ~ Leave a comment

The May 2 SAT is cancelled, so now what should you do?

Consider using this extra time to become even better prepared! It’s easy to do by making practice a part of your daily routine. Answer a question a day on the Daily Practice app and get immediate feedback. Created by College Board, this free app also provides answer explanations and helps you learn from your mistakes. So just a few minutes a day could make a big difference when test day rolls around! Learn more about it here.

Celebrate Preservation Week 2020

~ ccllauras ~ Leave a comment

Do you own special photos, letters, family heirlooms, or other items that you’ve always wanted to organize or better care for?

The ALCTS, a division of the American Library Association, has a Preservation Week site chock-full of information to help you get started. Learn about “Saving Your Stuff” and how to “Take the First Step,” explore the advice column “Advice from Donia,” watch free preservation webinars, and much more!

Preservation Week officially happens April 26-May 2, 2020, but you can explore the Preservation Week website and resources at any time!

Kids’ Update: April Is National Poetry Month!

~ clancygirl1 ~ Leave a comment

This is a great time to connect with your inner poet. Whether you do it by reading poetry or writing your own — it’s all good and FUN! Here’s a poem we remember from our school days:

I eat my peas with honey.

I’ve done it all my life.

It makes the peas taste funny,

But keeps them on my knife.

— Anonymous

Here are some sites for you to explore! 30 Ways to Celebrate Poetry Month at Home! and Children’s Poetry have lots of poems for you to read, or Kenn Nesbitt’s Poetry 4 Kids will help you write your own!

Read this story and you’ll discover that Clark the Shark is a bit of a poet himself!

The Youth Services Staff at the Chester County Library and Hankin Branch are presenting Virtual Storytimes beginning April 27th. They will be for three different ages groups — 0 to 2 Year Olds, 3 & 4 Year Olds, and 5 & 6 Year Olds. Registration is required via the Events Calendar at https://chescolibraries.org/. Virtual Storytimes are not registered as multi-week sessions; you will need to register for each storytime individually.

FREE WiFi Available Outside Most CCLS Libraries

~ makohl10 ~ Leave a comment

Did you know Free WiFi is available outside most Chester County Library System libraries.  To access, simply go to any library and situate yourself within a safe distance from other people who are also using WiFi. 

To connect to WiFi on your computer: 

  1. Go to Available Networks
  2. Click ‘Library’
  3. Click ‘Connect’
  4. Open an Internet Browser (Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Silk, etc.)
  5. Type ‘www.dogster.com’ in your URL bar
  6. The library’s Internet Acceptable Use Policy will appear
  7. Read and accept it by clicking the green ‘Connect’ button
  8. You’re now connected!