Since 2019, the library has been partnering with researchers from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine to develop a digital tool to help teens with anxiety. Now in the fourth year of a five-year grant, the research partnership has won an award for its strong collaborative research principles and work to impact health and equity … Read more
As your public library, we are here for you and have compiled a list of library, local, and regional resources focusing on: Mental health and trauma assistance Gun violence Voting and legislation Misinformation Books and library resources Mental health & trauma assistance For all ages Managing distress in the aftermath of a shooting from the … Read more
The library is partnering with the Oak Park Township to offer free personal hygiene supplies for youth at the library. Kids and their families can help themselves to soap, shampoo and conditioner, toothbrushes and toothpaste, floss, deodorant, lotion, and menstrual products. The supplies are located inside a small latched cabinet in the wheelchair-accessible bathroom in … Read more
As our library’s approach to public safety has evolved over the past five years, library staff member Aaron Alonzo has grown along with it. He started at the library in 2017 in a part-time role, and has since worked to become a leader in the organization. This month, Alonzo was promoted to Manager of Public Safety. … Read more
Thanks to a unique partnership with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, people without adequate health care coverage have been receiving confidential mental health assessments from a licensed clinical psychologist at the Main Library since last fall. “Rush University Medical Center is recognizing that our library is where people are coming every day,” says the … Read more
The library, in partnership with Rush University Medical Center is offering free mental health assessments (through prescheduled appointments) for children, teens, and adults on Wednesdays from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm at the Main Library. A Rush psychologist will conduct the onsite assessment. To learn more about these free assessments and to schedule an appointment, … Read more
“People make a lot of assumptions about who is experiencing homelessness, based on how someone looks, acts, smells, or dresses,” said the library’s Director of Social Services and Safety Robert Simmons. “But really, you don’t know if someone is homeless unless they tell you.” As the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition notes in its 2016 Plan … Read more
In March 2016, Robert Simmons joined the library as its first social worker, a direct result of the library’s intentional strategy of listening and responding to community aspirations. Since then, the Social Services and Safety team he’s built has served more than 350 vulnerable patrons. Most are Oak Park residents experiencing mental illness, homelessness, and … Read more
When it comes to opioid use and abuse, Oak Park and River Forest are really no different than anywhere else in the country, said Mike Charley, Director of the Oak Park Department of Public Health. Local data show increases in overdoses, particularly from heroin, and mirror what’s going on in the rest of the country, … Read more
Last March, as part of our strategy to rethink how we engage with all patrons, we hired a social worker—a first for us, but part of a growing trend for public libraries, including those in Evanston, Denver, and Washington, DC. “Around the nation, public libraries have become de facto community health centers for people who … Read more
