First 5 Forever staff spotlight, Karen Gawen

First 5 Forever is 10! And this month we’re celebrating Karen Gawen, another true champion of early childhood. Her leadership, innovation and passion has touched the lives of so many families and fostered a love of literacy, learning and libraries through First 5 Forever. 
 

5 minutes with Karen Gawen, Young Peoples Services Supervisor, Sunshine Coast Libraries. 

Can you tell us about your role delivering First 5 Forever? 
As the Young Peoples Services Supervisor my team and I are tasked with the design of all First 5 Forever programming and initiatives for Sunshine Coast Libraries. We have wonderful staff across 8 branches and 2 mobiles who are instrumental in the delivery and incredible marketing staff who do the promotion.  

How long have you worked with First 5 Forever? 
Since the very beginning! 

Do you have a story or favourite moment to share? 
After 10 years there are too many, but each has touched my heart and reinforced the belief that First 5 Forever has really made big and wonderful impacts on families. A few of my favourites: 

• The little toddler who thinks her library card can do anything and each time her mum goes to pay for something she whips it out of her purse and says ‘Mummy, I got this’ and tries to swipe to pay.
• The pure delight on not just the little one’s faces, but also mum and dad’s when we hosted 2 special FREE after-hours events at SeaLife Mooloolaba. So many dads came up to thank us saying they never would have been able to afford to bring the whole family and how wonderful it was.
• The opportunity to run massive amounts of outreach programs in great locations across the Sunshine Coast and meet so many young families. Then see them again, sometimes years later, to hear that they’ve been coming to library sessions and their little one loves books.  Also getting to relive a childhood fantasy and creating a Whoville inspired library area for 5 nights as part of a Festive Gardens Christmas event.
• The privilege of staff watching so many little babies and toddlers age out of the program but still come into the library on a regular basis. While it’s always happened in libraries, creating specific First 5 Forever programming has given us a better opportunity to engage more on a personal level with families.
• Getting emails from speech pathologists and members of the Deaf and hard of hearing Community on how thrilled they are we have implemented Key Word sign in our rhyme time sessions. Plus, the enthusiasm and delight staff showed in attending training sessions to learn the key word signs was beautiful to watch. 

What do you love most about the program? 
Having the budget to actually do amazing, high impact things has been awesome!  The Story Seats and the Communication Boards have proved to be really popular and have helped us create 24/7 early literacy tools for families and caregivers. 
 
It’s also been very exciting to be able to help create large marketing campaigns, like having massive First 5 Forever advertisements at the Sunshine Plaza shopping centre, on buses or filming a television / social media advertisement. The footage actually captured Harriet’s first ‘big girl bike’ ride and her first success at tying a shoelace on her own which was incredibly special for us and her family. 
 
During COVID19, creating online programming to ensure the community could still access early literacy sessions. They are still viewed and loved to this day.

But in all honesty, I think my most favourite thing is having the one common goal. In the age of public libraries doing so much, First 5 Forever has given us the opportunity to really focus on one thing. Having tailor made messaging that all staff can use when engaging with families and caregivers, having the one goal of promoting early literacy and providing not just the funds, network, training and resources, but the space for us to really concentrate and create impactful programs has been incredibly rewarding and beneficial. 

Every library staff’s knowledge and confidence has grown so much due to First 5 Forever, including my own, and we’ve seen first-hand how parents and caregivers absorb all the messaging and are replicating it. 

Thanks to Karen and the team at Sunshine Coast Libraries who bring so much joy and opportunity to talk, read, sing and play with families through First 5 Forever.