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January 14, 2008

The Social Worker is In

Although our librarians are not trained social workers, a fair amount of what we do could be classified as social work. And a lot of people (1200 a day) come into the Library. Many might benefit from a chat with a social worker or psychologist, but are not ready to make "the call". Many are not aware of the broad array of services offered by agencies in town. At last week's Human Services Planning Council (HSPC) meeting, we were brainstorming ways to work together to meet the social services needs in our community. As Moira Rizzo from Family and Youth Options, Susan Jasko from Child Guidance, and Duane Lovello from the Darien Police department talked about preventive services and the importance of education in addressing Darien's human service needs, it suddenly hit me.

Why not have social workers and clinical psychologists from the HSPC agencies drop by the Library? Like our roving reference librarians, they could be roving social workers. We know that after our librarians visit the schools, children are pleased to recognize a familiar face when they come into the Darien Library. And when we do "roving reference", people ask more questions.

If the social workers were available in the Library, it might break the ice for some people to use their services. And it would bring greater attention to the information we have in the Library about the services offered.

Social workers could also offer training to our front line staff on making referrals to their agencies.

Susan Jasko emailed the next day to sign up! Watch for "the social worker is in" sign, soon.

Posted by louise at 11:47 AM | Comments (1)