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)

May 25, 2007

Farewell Ron and Janet

Sunday's farewell party for Janet and Ron Evans was a wonderful celebration of community spirit, philanthropy, altruism, respect for others and caring. You could feel the love in the "packed to the rafters" Meeting Room. The Evans are leaving Darien to move to California, after serving Darien for 22 years. ( Ron as Pastor of the First Congregational Church and Janet as Director of Person to Person, and a former Library trustee.)

Here in the Library, we will always remember Janet as our President when we launched our Internet service in 1996. Janet was very amused that she would be the one to cut the ribbon on our Internet service, since she did not consider herself a "techie". Janet and Ron are both great readers and library users, and we will miss them very much.

Janet Evans, Library President, Hank Sanders, First Selectman, Congressman Christopher Shays 1996

Posted by louise at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2006

Accountability and Transparency

Most of us think of Enron as an issue for the corporate world. And yet, legislation passed by Congress (Sarbanes-Oxley Act or SOX) in the wake of that scandal has implications for not for profits as well. Brian Peoples, the chairman of the Library's audit committee, and I attended a seminar last week that addressed these issues. In the last year, the Library has implemented a number of the "best practices" recommended by SOX, including forming an audit committee, approving a conflict of interest policy, and moving from a cash based audit to a full GAAP audit of our financial statements. We plan to draft a whistleblower policy and a document destruction policy in the coming year, and we will post our financial statements on our web site once our audit is complete. The Library will also be acquiring books and other materials on governance for not for profits to help our fellow organizations as we all work to improve our accountability and transparency to our community.

Posted by louise at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2006

Great Meeting:Great Collaboration

At the Human Services Planning Council meeting this morning, there was so much energy and so many thoughtful ideas about addressing the social service needs in Darien in a collaborative way, that I left the meeting with a long "to do" list for the Library. Emergency Preparedness Week, which begins on Saturday, is one of the HSPC projects. And I was very interested in the new services provided by the Darien police department through their Domestic Violence Liaison Unit, in collaboration with the Domestic Violence Task Force. Great brainstorming session, led by co-chairs Martha Rhein and Kiki Karpen, on current issues facing Darien. We'll be tackling a lot in the coming year. Watch for some substantive outcomes from this group!

Posted by louise at 03:46 PM | Comments (1)