In response to Bernadette Main's query -
At Blackburn with Darwen we work in partnership with Nightsafe, a charity
that operates a drop in centre and night shelters for homeless young
people to deliver a project called Books on the Edge. Another partner in
the project is Blackburn with Darwen Foyer which provides housing for 16-
25 year old young people, on-site training suites, options for childcare,
access to a wide range of training and a job-match service to help
residents to find work and succeed in a job.
As part of the project, groups of young people from Nightsafe visit the
library on a weekly basis for IT sessions and book exchange. Both
organisations have book collections on site chosen by young people and the
Foyer has a weekly reading group. When joining the project young people
are given an amnesty for any outstanding fines and charges and the project
worker spends time with them on a one-to-one basis explaining how these
can be avoided in the future.
Good relationships have been developed with staff at both centres, who are
highly supportive of the library, but it has been a long process. It is
several years since we first made contact and funding from the Paul Hamlyn
Foundation has made it possible to invest the required time and resources
into the project. Without our partners it would be very difficult for us
to access this group of young people. In the Foyer, the support of their
workers has been crucial in getting groups of young people together at
once as, being a place of residence, the young people come and go freely.
The project worker has also been crucial as she has been able to build
relationships with individual young people and follow through with any
problems that arise. Library staff have also gained confidence through
watching her interactions with young people.
There have been occasional behavioural problems with the young people,
both in the library and the centres, particularly the drop in centre,
where young people call in off the street and can be drunk or ‘high’ on
drugs. At the centres, the staff are well used to dealing with this type
of behaviour, but on the few occasions when it has been repeated in the
library, staff have found it difficult to handle. We are looking at
training and other strategies to manage this.
I think the main lessons we have learned so far is that to make progress
you need to be prepared to commit to the work for the long term as it is
quite slow and time consuming, but it is also well worth it when you see
the change in attitudes of the young people and the confidence with which
they now use the library.
We are also members of our local Asylum Seeker Multi-Agency Forum and have
links with housing providers through this. Although they can’t share
personal details with us they have been happy to include library
information in their welcome packs and to circulate further information
about our events and services to their tenants.
Geraldine Wilson
Literacy Development Manager
Blackburn with Darwen Library and Information Services
Blackburn Central Library
Town Hall Street
Blackburn
BB2 1AG
01254 587236
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