With support of a $200,000 grant from the Ontario Public Libraries Capacity Fund, Chatham-Kent Public Library has partnered with Windsor Public Library, Essex County Library and Guelph Public Library to develop a community hub to facilitate access to social services for those experiencing homelessness and living in poverty.
The Library Hubs Meet Community Needs Project (LHMCN) will create a toolkit that will be shared with other library systems across the province. It will focus on developing new ways to engage with and meet the changing needs of Ontarians.
The goals of the LHMCN Project are to develop new service delivery models for high-needs populations, to create formal partnerships within the community to broaden services and to produce an electronic based toolkit to provide staff training and implementation plans. It will also help reduce stigma and stress by assisting vulnerable populations in navigating social service systems and improving access to social service information in a welcoming environment.
Once the two-year long project is complete, library systems across Ontario will have access to the electronic toolkit and can adapt the toolkit to meet the needs of their own community.
