The caring city: re-imagining the role of city institutions

Not too long ago, with the vast possibilities of a digital world looming, a few people were quick to predict an end of the road for traditional public libraries.

But what they missed was something that libraries held that was in their core and went beyond books. Something that included community and place and connection [1].

Librarians are not only good at finding people the right book to read – and there were around 40 million items on loan in 2017-18 [2] - they also supported some 111 million visits in that year from people attending learning programs, playgroups and social clubs. They visited art galleries and theatres in those libraries, used study spaces, meeting rooms, recording studios and makers spaces. 

On top of all that work, library staff are often the eyes and ears of a community. Quite often they are the first point of contact for someone whose life may have gone awry. For regular customers, they may be the person who notices when something has changed.

Librarians as first responders

The opportunity to assist people who are disadvantaged or vulnerable is not a new concept among those who work in libraries, but the current pandemic may be an opportunity for public libraries to re-establish their profile as places of just books and quiet spaces to study.

President of Public Libraries Victoria, Chris Buckingham says this may be just the time for libraries to step forward to assume their place as accessible and trusted community centres:

“Libraries are the last free revolving doors in many communities. They are consistently valued and very well placed to address new vulnerabilities".

“There will be literally hundreds of thousands of Victorians who will need our support through the recovery process. Job seekers, students, creatives, and small businesses head up the list from an economic inclusion perspective".

“We should also remember that libraries are a place for the homeless, the lonely, and people needing free and equitable access to public space”.

In the United States, libraries started acting on this special situation more than a decade ago.

Leah Esguerra, of San Francisco’s public library service is credited as being America’s – and probably the world’s – first library social worker. Across 27 library branches she works tirelessly and leads a small team of health and safety representatives – people who have experienced homelessness themselves - to engage, reach out and assist people facing a wide scope of stress, trauma and illness [3].

Esguerra and other librarians from across the United States were instrumental in informing work that the City of Melbourne initiated in 2019 to establish a social worker in their library service.

Responding to a changing city

After years of transformation from its manufacturing base to a celebrated knowledge city, Melbourne’s story had been told and celebrated worldwide [4], but the human impact of these changes took longer to manifest, starting to show around 2016 when the number of people visibly sleeping rough in the central city rapidly increased. Changing employment opportunities, shifting housing affordability, social housing shortages, inadequate financial support structures, and a stressed health system all played a role in this human impact [5].

The City of Melbourne responded rapidly to the changing situation on the streets, establishing an in-house assertive outreach team who would work directly with rough sleepers and connect them into appropriate services and building connections with police and city businesses to help them respond to the crisis.

Conversations with library staff and a closer review of shift notes and incident logs indicated that many of the same people who the city was helping on the streets were also accessing libraries, but despite working for one organisation, that connection had not yet been made.

It turned out that often library staff knew many of these people by name, having built relationships over years. While some felt comfortable working with diverse customers, others struggled. Logs showed that staff were helping people demonstrating a variety of complex needs – drug and alcohol dependencies, health and mental health needs, people escaping violence, faced with trauma or economic hardships.

When the City of Melbourne’s librarians started noticing changes amongst their users many raised their concerns because they wanted to do more to help. Others were also feeling unsafe in their interactions and wanted more support from their employers.

Taking action

Melbourne’s Library Social Worker Program was designed to address three particular needs recognised through initial scoping. These were to:

• Support and enhance City of Melbourne frontline staff’s understanding of homelessness, providing advice on engagement with people experiencing homelessness and/or people with multiple and complex needs
• Provide direct engagement with people experiencing homelessness and/or people with multiple and complex needs, linking into support services, where possible
• Co-design and co-deliver staff training to improve capacity and resilience in working with changing community needs.

Creating a close partnership with a local homelessness provider, Launch Housing, the program was established in two phases. The initial pilot connected the city’s homelessness response team into the libraries by dedicating one outreach worker into the library system to respond to customers and support and train staff.

A few months down the track, the decision was made to recruit a qualified social worker who would bring a breadth of knowledge and experience, along with an established practice in working with a wide variety of visitors. The social worker would bring their specialist skills to train, support, and role model behaviour for staff and introduce reflective supervision and mentoring to support staff and build resilience. It was also seen as important that the library social worker program establish strong links with local support services to ensure the libraries did not become entry points, but rather places of referral.

A second phase – the recruitment of a library social worker, in partnership with Launch Housing, commenced in late 2019. The partnership allowed the position to be linked with the City of Melbourne’s Daily Support Team, contracted through Launch Housing, which provided direct assistance to people sleeping rough in the central city. The connection with Launch Housing provided a network within which the social worker was able to operate, allowing access to a community of practice, databases and housing assistance tools, along with pathways into long term permanent housing.

Outcomes

Anna Lockwood, Melbourne’s first library social worker commenced work in November 2019 and worked across the city’s network of six public libraries until the COVID-19 shutdown in mid-March 2020.

During these four months she reported hundreds of interactions with library users, with 59 people offered in-depth assistance. Despite patrons having a plethora of presenting issues, around 80 per cent of these clients had no current service connections or formal supports in place.

After the libraries closed because of COVID-19, Anna continued to use her established connections with staff and clients to help get dozens of people into emergency accommodation, to access food, and keep connections with services.

Case studies written by the social worker demonstrated how effective a gentle, yet consistent approach was in building rapport and establishing trust. Ongoing observation provided in the library setting was also key as the social worker got to know clients.

In reflecting on outcomes, she also acknowledged how patrons’ connections with library staff – often built over years – helped establish trust and often assisted in making connections. Around one-third of referrals came through library staff, who often had known and observed patrons over time. Often, her ability to connect with clients was made much easier because the first steps in building trust had been covered already.

For staff, an in-house social worker offered support and reassurance in circumstances that could be, at times, difficult and traumatic. With training and education in place, staff stated reporting increases in confidence in being able to support people experiencing complex issues. They reported back that the social worker took pressure off them and reduced stress, increased confidence and knowledge in handling complex issues and created a more positive environment in the libraries, with patrons seeming to be calmer and better behaved.

The case for social workers in libraries

The City of Melbourne’s library social work program has seen many positive outcomes, both in improving the welfare of library patrons and in building knowledge, confidence and resilience among library staff.

Experience so far points to the many untapped opportunities available in integrating social work into library practice, to establish rapport and link people into services. It also highlights the benefits in lifting the skills of library staff to respond to people with high needs.

Importantly, the library proved to be a safe and welcoming place that allowed for more positive interactions than in other locations.

Anna attributes much of her success to libraries being welcoming and democratic places. She also emphasises the importance of the relationships that are formed between library staff and their communities.

“Spatial justice is such an important concept to me. By being open, free and accessible, libraries offer something that so many other places in our communities cannot".

“The people and relationships are so important too,” she said, “a really interesting thing for me has been that when referrals come through from library staff, you get this very special situation where half of the rapport building has been already done”.

“People who work in libraries know the people who come in. Often, they have built relationships over years. And what I do is to help build their confidence and skills in managing those relationships and use my knowledge to help the clients take the next step on their journey”.

Do you need a social worker? What next?

As professions, libraries and social workers share common historical origin and ethical frameworks, but while social workers operate in many industries already – including hospitals, the police force, in law firms - relatively little has been done to bring the professions together [6].

The Melbourne experience, though very new, already indicates significant potential which may be replicated in libraries across the country. To ensure success an informed approach is needed, embedded in local experience, to make sure that the program meets all the needs of the local situation and ensures buy-in from all partners and stakeholders.

In planning future interventions, library services might consider the following as a start:

• Understand the need - What is your data telling you? How many incidents and/or interactions are you experiencing? How are your staff feeling about their working environment? What do your customers need from you?
• Survey your service – and others - How well are you meeting the needs that your staff and customers value? What are your knowledge gaps? What are other services offering? And remember look locally, nationally and internationally – you never know what you will find.
• Set your baseline – How will you track and evaluate so that you can understand change and continuously improve?
• Secure your partnerships – Are you in the position to recruit and support your social worker directly, or will you engage a specialist service? Who will your social support partners be?
• Keep staff involved – What are the best ways to bring your staff along on the journey? How will you build support and ensure buy-in? Remember, this work depends on a collaborative approach.

The caring city

With the phrase ‘the new normal’ embedded in our vernacular, maybe it is time to look at some of our old institutions and think about how, as we emerge into new circumstances, cities can meet the vastly changing needs of their communities.

As trusted and accessible community places, where people can learn and connect, public libraries are perfectly placed at the forefront of caring communities. And in-house social workers are just one way of meeting these changing needs.

New and non-traditional partnerships will be key in building this new direction. Libraries are not drop-in centres and staff, while often amazing all-rounders, are not qualified support workers. Knowing limitations and boundaries will be key to success.

However, with the infrastructure in place, public libraries are perfect points of first contact that others can use to connect with the most vulnerable - a relatively untapped channel of connection that could help deliver support into the community, straight to the people who often miss out.