Pima County Public Library (PCPL) is being recognized for offering the first of its kind unique program and collaboration.
Author: Lisa Gieskes
Santa Clarita Library Hosts Souls Of Hope Project To Help Homeless
Bridge to Home will be hosting an exhibition at the Valencia Library from February 22nd until March 5, 2014.
Local Photographer and Arts Commissioner Gary Choppe’ will be presenting a selection of images taken of clients at Bridge to Home, a shelter offering hot meals, warm beds, showers, medical help, and job resources. The exhibit also includes an insightful and compelling video. Choppe, a 50-year artist and resident of Santa Clarita, entitled the exhibition “Souls of Hope” because of the optimism displayed by the clients he interviewed and photographed. “They all need our help, support and a roof over their heads,” he explains, “many are just like us and living from paycheck to paycheck.”
Glastonbury MLK Initiative To Host Community Conversations Feb. 8, 15
Dr. Martin Luther King believed in a “Beloved Community” where racism, poverty, hunger and homelessness were not tolerated.
This Beloved Community is the topic to be explored by the Glastonbury Martin Luther King Community Initiative, which is hosting a two-day “community conversation” on King’s “Beloved Community” and what it means for society today. Sessions will be held at the Friends Room of the Welles Turner Memorial Library.
War on Poverty at 50
“The data clearly show that anti-poverty policies have been effective, but they’ve had to work harder in the face of increasing economic challenges facing low-income families. We could try to push the safety net further, but the politics aren’t there, to say the least. Moreover, unless we do more to deal with the underlying structural problems in the economy that are increasing poverty — especially the lack of decently paying jobs, which I link closely to the absence of full employment — we’ll have to increasingly ratchet up government support year after year.”
Social Workers in the Library a New Resource for the Homeless
“We’ve really unearthed a hub (of need at the library),” Tkachuk said. “The mainstream agencies — Boyle Street, Bissell, E4C (Edmonton City Centre Church Corporation) — they are so strapped themselves and so every day we have more and more people falling through the cracks. A lot of them are ending up in the library. And for many of them, we’re their last lifeline. We get people who have to use the library by default, out of survival. ”
Food Desert Gets First Nonprofit Supermarket
Hunger relief comes to Chester, PA, a federally designated “food desert.” The supermarket, Fare & Square, offers free membership and includes, for low income people, a 7% store credit for each time they shop. The supermarket is operated by Philabundance, a nonprofit.
15% of Americans Live at or Below Poverty Line
46.5 million Americans, 15% of the population, live at or below the poverty line according to the recently released United States Census Population Survey.
Cost of Living is Higher for the Poor
There is a common misperception that people experiencing poverty do not have enough discipline to save and pull themselves out of poverty. The truth is that it is expensive to be poor.
Ending Veteran Homelessness by 2015
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is committed to ending Veteran homelessness by the end of 2015 through their Homeless Veterans Outreach Initiative. The VA wants to partner with organizations and individuals in communities across the country to end and prevent homelessness among Veterans.
“The single best way to help Veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless is to connect them with VA. Each VA medical center has a homeless coordinator on staff and specific programs that provide Veterans the support they need to establish or maintain safe, stable housing. VA has also established the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans (877-4AID-VET, or 877-424-3838), a toll-free hotline available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Trained responders—many of them Veterans themselves—are available to provide support to Veterans and their loved ones who lack safe, secure housing. These services are also available on an online chat at va.gov/homeless. ”
Libraries transforming communities
“I think we’ve paved the way,” said Leah Esguerra, the SFPL’s social worker, who is in demand as a speaker at library and social worker conferences. She estimates that the library has helped more than 60 patrons find permanent housing and hundreds of others find social services.
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