The September 2025 newsletter of Let's Move in Libraries includes:

• A Let's Move in Libraries story from Georgia
• A new Libraries for Health toolkit
• The release of the ConnectWell at the Library report
• Next steps in the 2025 I Partner with My Public Library Awards
• How to join the September Food Education Social Media campaign
• How and why to join our monthly Birds of a Feather online conversation

Our main story is the release of a new Nature-Smart Libraries Toolkit. As community hubs, libraries can provide children with regular access to nature programs, nature-based collections and outdoor spaces. This toolkit highlights innovative, Nature-Smart Library initiatives nationwide, showcasing how libraries can collaborate with cities, parks, and community partners to expand nature access. While many libraries lead individual efforts, this toolkit emphasizes system-wide strategies to ensure nature is accessible across entire communities.

Noah Lenstra from Let's Move in Libraries served as an advisor on this toolkit, which was produced out of a collaboration between the Children & Nature Network and the National League of Cities. The toolkit highlights programming, lending programs, spaces, partnerships, and equity, and it includes case studies from large cities and small towns. Take a look!

A Let's Move in Libraries story from Georgia

Our thanks to Let's Move in Libraries advisory board member Michelle Bennett-Copeland for sharing this inspiring story from Georgia!

Katie Rees, Children's Librarian at the Fayette County (Georgia) Public Library wrote in the Georgia Library Association newsletter that:

"The Fayette County Public Library, a proponent of the Let's Move in Libraries initiative, was proud to kick off 2025 by partnering with local organization, The Fitness Ranch, to offer a mental fitness class for children in their community. Library staff and Fitness Ranch founders, Coach Q and Nora Pullen, know how stressful life can be and believe it is important for children to learn how to handle stress in a healthy way when it comes into their lives.

The class began with introductions as well as what participants could hope to gain from their attendance. Over the course of the 75-minute class, children would learn how to improve their concentration, boost their confidence, have a stronger mindset, and become more resilient. A strength and conditioning coach as well as a movement therapist, Coach Q was quick to remind the kids that mental fitness is closely tied to physical fitness. He led them through several simple exercises designed to wake up the brain and energize the body. He even gave them homework in the form of a daily assignment since both physical and mental fitness are a lifestyle more than a singular event.

After completing their physical exercises, the children were taught multiple breathing techniques, such as box breathing and meditative breathing, to help them manage stress and improve concentration. Once the breathing techniques had them in a calm, focused headspace, the children were asked to choose a goal they would like to accomplish during the upcoming year and then visualize what it would be like to achieve that goal. Nora Pullen, a mindset-focused life coach, explained to the kids that visualization, creating a detailed image of our success, can be a powerful tool when it comes to realizing the goals we set for ourselves. If the children weren't quite sure how to reach their goal, they were advised to think of someone who had already achieved a similar goal and find out how they did it.

The last activity of the day reminded the children that, as strong as we can be alone, we are always stronger when we work together. Tying a long rope around his waist, Coach Q challenged one of the children to grab the other end of the rope and try to pull him across the sizable room. When the first child was unable to budge him, Coach Q invited a second child to join them, then a third, and so on. With the addition of each child, it became more and more difficult for Coach Q to hold his ground until he was finally tugged across the room by the triumphant group.

Grinning from their success, the kids returned to their seats for a quick refresher on everything they had learned during their time in class. Coach Q and Nora congratulated them on a job well done and released them back into the care of their parents with one final reminder not to forget about their daily assignment. The day's class was over, but the children's journey to becoming the healthiest, most confident versions of themselves was just beginning. Already discussing when their next partnership would take place, the Fayette County Public Library and The Fitness Ranch knew it wasn't a journey the children would be taking alone."

Read the full article on the Georgia Library Association webpage!

A new Libraries for Health toolkit

In January 2022, St. David's Foundation launched the Libraries for Health initiative to address the shortage of mental health care in rural Central Texas. The effort was grounded in community need and informed by conversations with community members across the region.

Over the past three years, the Foundation collaborated with RAND as the pilot's design and evaluation partner lead, and with Via Hope as the implementation partner responsible for hiring, training, and managing peer specialists who provided mental health support for community members at 10 participating public libraries.

The partners are excited to share the full Libraries for Health evaluation report, brief, and toolkit here.

Of special note is the new toolkit on Supporting Community Mental Health in Libraries A Toolkit for Implementing Evidence-Based Approaches. This toolkit contains actionable strategies for public libraries interested in supporting health in many ways, including physical health. Throughout the toolkit are helpful strategies on building partnerships, laying out responsibilities among partners, and evaluating impact.

We encourage everyone to check out these amazing new resources! Learn more at the Libraries for Health webpage.

The release of the ConnectWell® at the Library report

For the last year, Let's Move in Libraries has collaborated with ConnectWell® to explore opportunities to use new technology to support community health in public libraries.

We're thrilled to share the release of the ConnectWell® at the Library report, which summarizes the lessons learned from a pilot effort to host healthy eating challenges in public libraries across the United States in Spring 2025.

Twelve rural and suburban libraries from across the country participated in this cohort that deployed ConnectWell's 5-week Balance Well Healthy Eating Challenge at their libraries. Overall we found that the Balance Well Healthy Eating Challenge developed by ConnectWell supports:

• Increasing nutrition knowledge
• Changing eating habits for the better (measured across 19 metrics)
• Continuing with new-found healthy eating practices post challenge
• Desire to participate in another ConnectWell Challenge

These results are very promising given that 70% of preventable illness is due to unhealthy lifestyle habits. Learning in community at the library using ConnectWell's Wellness Challenge Model (Learn, Take Action, Support) shows promise that the library can be a significant community partner for improving public health related to lifestyle. The pilot demonstrated the deep learning that took place, both at the library and at home in-between sessions, by accessing ConnectWell's digital resources. Participants took action by changing their eating habits across many factors. Adopting healthy eating practices is the start of reversing food-related illnesses (metabolic syndrome, prediabetes, obesity, diabetes) that impact the majority of Americans of all ages. Participants found support in the library community and a positive experience delivered by the challenge facilitators with ConnectWell's comprehensive challenge materials. We look forward to your reviewing the report and learning about ConnectWell's Challenge Model for 18 Wellness Challenges that support lifestyle change at libraries to improve health and unlock vitality. Please share the report widely with your colleagues.

Read the full report here, and please share widely!

Next steps in the 2025 I Partner with My Public Library Awards

We're thrilled to share that we received a cornucopia of amazing nominations for the third annual I Partner with My Public Library Awards!

During the month of September our volunteer reviewers will be scoring every nomination and we'll announce results in September.

For now, take a look at the awardees from 2023 and 2024. We can't wait to share more.

Make sure you're subscribed to the Let's Move in Libraries newsletter to find out who won in 2025.

How to join the September Food Education Social Media campaign

We want to thank our friends at The Charlie Cart Project for extending this invitation. We hope you'll join them in this campaign to tell the world about the importance of food education.

Alice Waters, FoodTank, and the Edible Schoolyard have partnered with The Charlie Cart Project on a social media campaign to promote Food Education. Natalie Haynes is participating, and we would love to share your voice as well, alongside Alice and a select group of food systems pioneers.

The "What is Food Education" campaign will feature chefs, activists and influencers sharing what food education means to them. Alice will be the first to share her testimonial, followed by a curated group of key stakeholders from across the Food System, including but not limited to the list below. In addition, Charlie Cart, FoodTank, SlowFood USA, the Edible Schoolyard and Alice Waters will reach out to their national networks to join in the campaign via their own channels. We anticipate a vibrant and viral campaign.

Join the campaign – it's simple!

1. Tell us in 25 words or less what Food Education means to you, via video (iphone!) or a quote + headshot. Use our toolkit in Canva or Google to make it super easy and maintain campaign identity.

2. Submit your content to WhatisFoodEducation@charliecart.org

3. September 22 – 29, during Climate Week, post your content along with us on Instagram, FB and LinkedIn and tag us

4. In your posts, ask your audience what Food Education means to them! Send them to @GoCharlieCart to download the toolkit and join the campaign. Tag partners and collaborate with us on IG post

Now more than ever, knowing how to select and prepare nourishing meals is a lifeline, not a luxury. If you have a shared mission of expanding access to healthy food through your library, we would love for you to join us in promoting this critical work.

Please confirm your participation by 9/15 by following the instructions above.