By: Dwana Pinchock

McCormick Riverfront Library is more than the stereotypical idea of a Library as solely a place to read and research. The local unhoused population in downtown Harrisburg have found refuge there and now can find assistance through the DCLS Social Work program. Kathy Yorkievitz, who functions as Supervisor for the DCLS Social Work Program, explains the program and how it came to be:

“A friend from my church was working as a PSA here at DCLS, and she talked about how many un-housed people were hanging out here. This was around two years ago. I didn’t have a job at that point, so I decided to look into working as a PSA, in large part to see what was going on with the homeless population. I had read about other communities where they had library-based social work programs. Now, there are quite a few places in that country do it. North Carolina actually used students as caseworkers, so I thought that something similar might work here as well.

I had been an adjunct professor of Social Work at Millersville University, so I knew they’re always looking for student placements. Occasionally, there are students who live in Harrisburg, so I thought maybe it would work. I approached the school’s field placement adviser and went up the chain here. It took them a while to decide to try it.

I think Library Management originally thought it would be good to have a full-time staff person managing this program, but they didn’t have the resources. They eventually took me up on the idea of using students, and we were successful in recruiting Social Work students Dan and Ashley, who helped develop the program. They helped figure out how to do this, and we sort of muddled through. I think we’ve learned a lot, especially about how hard it is for these clients to get the services they need. Unfortunately, both county and state resources are very slim, and the system can be quite bureaucratic.

We are now in our second year of the project have had three other students come through the program. We are now seeing about 100 individuals a month (sometimes the same person more than once.”

We at DCLS are proud of the outreach efforts of Kathy and her team. For more information on how you can support the DCLS Social Work program, contact the McCormick Riverfront library.