The City of Drummondville had just inaugurated its new library. A modern, refined building, juxtaposed with a refrigerated ice rink.
It was in 2017. Located less than a kilometer from the city center, the new installation was a popular success. And not just among young families and students.
“Attendance jumped exponentially, which was great, but which also brought new challenges in terms of cohabitation between different users,” says Jean-François Fortin, division head of the Drummondville library.
Within its walls, the establishment observed the first signs of the homelessness crisis. Individuals coming to warm up, others showing up in a state of intoxication, seeking shelter for the day.
In recent years, libraries across the province have had to deal with a growing number of users with special needs.
But they think they have a solution.
Inspired by what is done elsewhere in the world, and more recently in Drummondville, the Association of Public Libraries of Quebec (ABPQ) wishes to integrate social stakeholders into its establishments, explains Ève Lagacé, general director of the ABPQ. , in conjunction with Public Library Week, which runs until October 21.
The goal? Contribute to maintaining a strong social fabric by meeting the needs of the vulnerable communities it encounters on a daily basis.
Leaving the Drummondville library, Félix and Christina chat while sitting on the asphalt warmed by the sun. On the ground, some of their personal effects: a small suitcase, a blanket…
“Here, I feel safe, I feel accepted,” confides Félix, who has been homeless for around ten years.
The thirty-year-old, who has been visiting the library for more than a year, sometimes spends the night on the establishment’s grounds. His presence is tolerated, as long as he wakes up before the library opens, he explains, with a smirk.
Since 2021, a community worker has been working on site to facilitate cohabitation between users.
Alexandra Gingras-Gaudreault does not have an office. As in street work, the speaker walks the corridors of the library meeting people.
“I’m here to support them in their needs. If someone is homeless and looking for housing, I can support them in that. I can accompany someone who has a toothache to the dentist,” she says.
The objective: to create links with marginalized populations, in addition to raising users’ awareness of tolerance. A mandate that goes beyond the skills of employees who work in the library.
“We’re not the library security guard. What we want is to strengthen the fabric that allows the most vulnerable to continue to use the library,” explains Francis Lacharité, director of the community organization La Piaule, whose partnership with the library made the project possible.
And it works. Since 2021, the level of tensions has fallen, expulsions have decreased. Between October and June 2022, 400 interventions were carried out with 127 individuals.
This is not a miracle solution. And it happens that the establishment is forced to expel a user.
“But the atmosphere is definitely nicer for everyone. And getting there without excluding people is really what makes all the difference,” says Jean-François Fortin.
Reproducing the success of the Drummondville library throughout the province: this is what the Association of Public Libraries of Quebec now wishes to do.
The Chicoutimi library recently followed suit, and certain establishments, such as the Grande Bibliothèque, are also considering it, but the model is slow to take root elsewhere.
In September, the ABPQ published a thesis entitled “Shaping social work in public libraries”, in order to raise awareness among partners and decision-makers about the social role of libraries.
“[The latter] associate the library more with a place for lending books,” laments Ève Lagacé.
According to her, we must reach vulnerable people where they are. However, libraries have always been places of openness and inclusion, where individuals from all social and economic classes come together.
“What can we do to work [with the social work community] and ensure that we too are considered a place of prevention? »
The integration of social work in libraries is being deployed in several cities around the world. In the United States, around a hundred libraries host a social worker, inspired in particular by the national Social Workers in the Library program. In Alberta, the Edmonton library hired two social workers in 2011 in response to increasing social distress. Ditto in Manitoba and Ontario where some libraries offer social work services.
