The Los Angeles City Council recently approved three new contracts for public libraries, with the goal of increasing professional help available while reducing calls to police.
The public library is intended to be a quiet, peaceful place for everyone to read, study or do research. But that open door policy can create uncomfortable encounters."As a city we're dealing with this on a giant level, so this is not something that's surprising anyone," said Karen Pickard-Four the director of the Los Angeles Public Library Experience Office.
The pilot project through "The Library Experience Office" is similar to what has been tried at libraries in San Francisco and Denver Colorado, intended to help library staff who often encounter people in a mental health crisis, but aren't trained in that field. "Having a social worker on staff, having some of the other staff that are part of the solutions we're developing within the Library Experience Office will allow our staff to do what they do best and that's to serve Angelinos directly." said John Szabo a city librarian for LAPL.
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