Fort Worth Public Library<\/p>\n
The Fort Worth Public Library is nearing completion of an updated multiyear strategic plan that will focus on community engagement, reducing barriers to usage and career exploration. Changes to library fees are expected to help promote regular use of services provided at local libraries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very passionate about our customer engagement. \u2026 We are very focused on serving the community,\u201d Midori Clark, library director, told members of the Community Development Committee.<\/p>\n
Clark briefed them on the staff\u2019s ongoing update of the library\u2019s 2019-21 strategic plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Accomplishments included increased checkouts of materials, eliminating fines and fees, implementing comprehensive programming for adult patrons and providing staff members with development opportunities.<\/p>\n Eliminating fines and fees led to increased usage of the library, Clark said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really happy that we are no longer penalizing people for overdue materials,\u201d she said. \u201cYou actually increase usage of the library.\u201d<\/p>\n Enhancement of employee development includes \u201cEmpower Hour,\u201d which allows employees one hour per week for \u201cany kind of development that they would like to do for themselves,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n The update to the library\u2019s plan was pushed to completion this year to allow for Clark\u2019s hiring in 2024 and the addition of other new leaders, including an assistant director, Clark told the committee. The city hired the BerryDunn consulting firm to help create a new three-year plan that the library intends to solidify by the end of the fiscal year this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n BerryDunn\u2019s research team has conducted surveys and gathered data to identify community and employee needs. Survey participation results were shared, totaling 475 responses. One surprising finding was that some respondents were nonusers of library services, Clark said.<\/p>\n A newly created employee advisory council will be added to Fort Worth\u2019s library structure, and Spanish- and English-speaking staff will be available to assist patrons with language barriers.<\/p>\n Plans to add support for additional languages will be discussed in the future, Clark said.<\/p>\n National Juneteenth Museum<\/p>\n The city is moving Southside Community Center<\/a>\u2019s programming to the nearby Hazel Harvey Peace Center for Neighborhoods, opening the way for redevelopment of the community center site for the National Juneteenth Museum.<\/p>\n The city expects to complete improvements at Hazel Harvey Peace by July 31, making room for the community center programs, staff members told the city\u2019s Community Development Committee June 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once the community center at 959 E. Rosedale St. is vacated, the site will be available for demolition, the staff said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was very important to myself and the community is that the Southside Community Center is a historical community, and it did not need to lose its vibrance, its voice and its stature in the city on the south side,\u201d Fort Worth City Council member Chris Nettles, a committee member whose council district includes the site, said during the meeting.<\/p>\n Jarred Howard, CEO of the National Juneteenth Museum<\/a>, updated the committee on plans for the museum, which will commemorate the day in 1865 when enslaved Blacks learned they were free.<\/p>\n The museum will include a 50,000-square-foot \u201cculture complex,\u201d indoor theater, food hall with five \u201cfood-preneurs,\u201d and business incubator, Howard said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a museum,\u201d Howard said. \u201cYou don\u2019t build an edifice like this on Historic Southside without addressing some of the issues that exist in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Those include southeast Fort Worth\u2019s food desert and lack of sitdown restaurants, he said. \u201cThat dynamic will change with the National Juneteenth Museum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The theater will help elevate local performing arts talents, he said. The incubator will have 50 coworking spaces, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to incubate businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are people in this community who have skills that are monetizable. They simply do not know how to monetize them.\u201d<\/p>\n The museum has raised $52 million of its $70 million capital campaign and wants to demolish the community center building this fall, with construction starting in the first quarter next year, he said.<\/p>\n The museum estimates it will generate more than $20 million in annual economic impact and maintain more than 180 jobs, he said.<\/p>\n Documenter: Tiffany Toru Johnson<\/p>\n Date: June 9, 2026<\/p>\n Learn more about this meeting by clicking here<\/a>. For the agenda, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tiffany Toru Johnson is a member of the Fort Worth Report Documenters<\/a> crew. If you believe anything in this account is inaccurate, please email us at news@fortworthreport.org<\/a> with \u201cCorrection Request\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/06\/27\/fort-worth-library-strategic-plan-nears-completion-juneteenth-museum-moves-forward\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=632259&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/06\/27\/fort-worth-library-strategic-plan-nears-completion-juneteenth-museum-moves-forward\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Janna Franzwa Canard, Fort Worth Report June 27, 2026 The Fort Worth Community Development Committee meeting on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8219,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-353484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-documenters","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/JarredHoward-683x1024.jpeg\")
Jarred Howard is the CEO of the forthcoming National Juneteenth Museum. (Courtesy | Kauwuane Burton Studios) <\/p>\n