Category: homelessness-and-housing

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.”

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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.”

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A Philadelphia Homeless Man's Path to Entrepreneurship

”[Mr.] Mercado’s circuitous path to Philadelphia and business ownership isn’t a tale of entrepreneurship’s power to overcome homelessness, as tempting as that might be. Rather, it’s a testament to Mercado’s fortitude and Philadelphia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, which he took advantage of at every opportunity to lift himself up the ladder of redemption.”

The Free Library of Philadelphia’s Business Science and Industry Department is part of this crucial entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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Libraries + Technology =Helping the Poor

“Most (people) think that homeless people are all criminals, on drugs, alcoholics. They think we don’t try to get out of homelessness and that we aren’t successful at anything. Some (homeless people) have college degrees and because of the economy got laid off.”—AnnMarie Walsh

“When Walsh found herself homeless, she used the computers in Chicago’s public libraries to not only look for ways of getting out of her situation but also to share thoughts and worries about her day-to-day struggle, such as finding [a] hostel bed for the night. As her following grew, she began to receive tips on shelters or even gifts of warm clothes and blankets.”

Walsh will speak at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library on Jan. 29,2012.

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