Enoch Pratt Free Library

The Enoch Pratt Free Library will partner with the University of Maryland School of Social Work to implement the social worker in the library program. This project will promote public libraries as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement and economic vitality and will demonstrate how urban public libraries can better serve the changing needs of their customers. The project will provide access to much-needed services to low-income Baltimoreans in communities throughout the city, thereby helping stabilize neighborhoods. Free programs designed to help customers cope with poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, and addiction will be offered at several Pratt locations throughout the two-year grant period. The social worker in the library project will prepare library staff to better handle crisis situations and convert the library’s existing patchwork of partnerships and programs to a consistent array of services. The Pratt will gather empirical and anecdotal data through intake charting and evaluations to track progress and outcomes.