San Francisco Public Library is the first library in the United States to hire a full-time social worker. The program has become a national model on which other libraries create their social service programs. Aside from myself as a social worker, the program also employs 7 Health and Safety Associates (HASAs) who are individuals who were once homeless themselves, have experience of usage of the social service system in San Francisco (shelter system, public assistance, and/or substance abuse treatment and/or mental health treatment). They were able to recover from homelessness and now working at SFPL as outreach workers.
We are outreached-based at the library where we walk around and look for people who might need assistance with social services, housing and linkage with resources that are available in the community such as free eats, showers, storage, shelter, medical care, welfare benefits, employment, counseling, etc. The SFPL Social Service Team program also has access to some stabilization rooms for people who are severely medically-compromised while they are working with case management and permanent housing. The HASA program has also become a model for vocational rehabilitation as some of the HASAs have gained their work skills from entry-level outreach workers/peer counselors at the library -- a number of them are now gainfully employed with City and County of San Francisco. I also provide training to the library staff and serve as a consultant around the issue of homelessness, substance abuse, mental health, etc.
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We are about to launch The Homeroom in July which is a gathering that will be facilitated jointly by library patrons who have personal experience with homelessness with the support of library staff, social worker and HASAs. The goal is to provide the patrons with space to meet, develop and be involved in activities such as book club, cooking for a Single Room Occupancy hotels, music, etc.
We also partnered up with Lava Mae (a non-profit organization) where mobile showers are provided outside of the library once a week and Everyday Connect, another homeless resource referral organization where they are at SFPL once a week as well. Once a month, we host the Pop Up Care Village at the steps of the library. It is a gathering of the community social services for library patrons and homeless/community members. It is held at the library once a month. The attendance is about 300 guests who receive free haircuts, medical care, clothing, showers, free food, books, pet care, etc. It is staffed by library staff, SFPL social service team and volunteers from the community.
Our services are through words of mouth and media-attention with San Francisco being the first library in the nation to have such unique programs. There are many more articles both printed and media that were done about the SFPL Social Service Program. I am sure the Elissa has appeared in many interviews as well as the libraries in the US are getting more interested in creating social services in their libraries. And many urban libraries have their own social service programs as well already.
Listen to the latest radio interview about the program on KQED: