Hunger, Homelessness & Poverty Task Force – SRRT/ALA – Page 14 – Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association

D.C. Adds a Social Worker to Library System to Work with Homeless Patrons

“The city drops folks from three shelters off here every morning and picks them up in the evening. So they come here because of that,” said Badalamenti, a social worker who in May became the D.C. Public Library’s first health and human services coordinator.

“But they would come here anyway,” she continued. “The library’s a great place to spend the day for anybody. You get access to computers, you can look for jobs, you can connect with your family and friends on Facebook and e-mail, use [photo software] and do lots of creative things.”

U.S. Libraries Become Front Line in Fight Against Homelessness

”(Libraries) are on the front line whether they want to or not,” said Jeremy Rosen, director of advocacy at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, an advocacy group.

Homeless outreach is part of an overall 47 percent increase in library programs from 2004 to 2011, according to a June report by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Dallas Library Gives Homeless Their Own Podcast

J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, located in downtown Dallas, produces a podcast about homelessness , put together by AmeriCorps volunteers and library employees such as Jasmine Africawala. The podcast has drawn nearly 5,000 plays and downloads since first airing in March.

Ryan Smith, the technical director for the podcast, said the success of the program is due to the show’s focus on equality and respect. “Homelessness is a situation you find yourself in,” Smith said. “It’s not who you are as a person.”

More Than 70 Per Cent of the World Population Lacks Proper Social Protection

“The global community agreed in 1948 that social security and health care for children, working age people who face unemployment or injury and older persons are a universal human right,” said ILO Deputy Director-General Sandra Polaski. “And yet in 2014 the promise of universal social protection remains unfilled for the large majority of the world’s population.”

Kitsap Regional Library Wins 2014 LibraryAware Community Award

“We are very happy to receive this recognition,” said Library Director Jill Jean. “We are even more excited about what is to come. Already as we have begun our strategic planning process for the next five years, we have identified some new and additional ways that the library can help support and connect our community.”

Kitsap Regional Library ’s initiatives include BiblioTEC, which focuses on getting homeless and at-risk youth access to cutting-edge technology training, equipment and mentorship and the first kids eReading Room.

Tavis Smiley and RESULTS Host Virtual Town Hall Meeting — Ending Poverty: America’s Silent Spaces

In light of the escalating number of Americans living in poverty, and as a continuation of Tavis Smiley’s leading efforts on this issue, the Tavis Smiley Foundation’s new four-year initiative, Ending Poverty: America’s Silent Spaces, is partnering with the national anti-poverty organization RESULTS, to discuss the state of poverty as the country moves towards mid-term elections, and what actions the public can take to help address poverty including influencing public policy in local communities through their vote.

WHO:
Tavis Smiley, national broadcaster, author, and advocate
Dr. Joanne Carter, Executive Director, RESULTS
Marianne Williamson, author and RESULTS Board member
Angela Sutton, participant and Advisory Board Co-Chair of Witness to Hunger

WHEN:
April 29, 2014, 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT
To register and join the conversation: https://engage.vevent.com/rt/results~042914

From Crisis to Collaboration: Pima County Public Library partners with Health Department for Library Nurse Program

Pima County Public Library (PCPL) is being recognized for offering the first of its kind unique program and collaboration.

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.”