Social workers offer critical help about benefits at seven state libraries

Tanja Baines has been looking for permanent housing most of her adult life.

The lifelong Dover resident is going on five years in a homeless shelter as she continues to search for the right state benefits that would allow her to have a place of her own.

Before that, Baines had been living on the street or was in and out of shelters for decades while applying for permanent housing and being turned down numerous times for one reason or another.

Because of that roller coaster ride, she lost trust in the system and gave up.

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A new program where Delaware state social workers provide assistance at libraries up and down the state has given Baines new hope.

As part of the new pilot program, two social workers from the state's Division of Social Services’ Community Partner Support Unit are now available once a week for three hours at seven libraries across the state to help patrons with state benefits.

The program was launched just after Thanksgiving by the state Department of Health and Social Services and the Division of Libraries.

"Promises were always broken and I would get to a certain point and told I didn't qualify, then told I did and back and forth," Baines said. "You just give up. Now I have reason to hope again." 

For Baines and others who are homeless or who can't afford or find transportation to state service centers, the pilot program allows social workers to meet them on their home turf on a consistent basis.

Baines says having social workers at the Dover Public Library with regular hours will help her stay on top of her benefits and allow her to ask questions whenever she needs assistance.

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More importantly, she hopes social workers will be able to help her finally find permanent housing.

Baines believes others in her position will reap the benefits of the program as well, especially in Dover where there is a large population of homeless people who might not know how to navigate the social services system.

"There are a lot of homeless people actually right in Dover that for whatever reason don't qualify or do but just won't get help," she said. "Maybe if they see enough people starting to come in here for resources, they will come in and get help."

State officials believe public libraries are an ideal setting for the delivery of social services. As centers for community engagement and access to technology, people in need of assistance in many cases are already library patrons.

"The reason we are doing it is we have a need," said State Librarian Annie Norman of the collaboration. "Libraries are the heart of the community. It's a perfect place for this to happen. People go there for information and services anyway."

As part of the pilot program, social workers are available to guide patrons through the state’s online benefits application process, assist individuals in applying for food benefits and help applicants gather necessary documents.

They also can connect eligible families and individuals with employment and training resources and connect with other DHSS agencies to answer questions as needed.

Onsite assistance at libraries in Wilmington, North Wilmington, New Castle, Dover, Seaford, Selbyville and Frankford, is in addition to the help available at 15 service centers located statewide.

"We're trying to meet our clients where they are and libraries offer an opportunity to do that," said Ray Fitzgerald, director of the DHSS Division of Social Services. "We really want to be more present in communities and libraries offer so many services and resources for many people, including our clients." 

Baines was at the Dover Public Library on Wednesday to talk to Dorian Baker, a senior social worker for the state. After weather canceled last week's appointments in Dover, Baines was back to talk to Baker.

Baker said many of her clients either can't get to a state service facility or they feel the library is more of a safe haven.

"It gives them more of that one-on-one and they feel more comfortable coming to the library and talking to a social worker," said Baker, who spends time at the four downstate libraries each week.

Baker said to help give the program a nudge, she and other social workers at the seven state libraries will go out within the libraries and softly speak with the clients and ask them if they want to talk.

She said that if they don't have the benefits, the goal is to get them in the system so they can receive them or at least have them processed to be able to get them approved for food benefits and Medicaid.

"The numbers are slowly rising and the trust factor is starting to build as long as we are being consistent with the times we are here," she said. "Initially, the clients were a little standoffish, but we do see that because they are starting to see a pattern and see us here, they are now coming in."

Baker believes the program is making a difference and will eventually reach those who are being missed. If social workers are consistently educating clients, offering them the resources, following up with them and making sure they are finding housing and staying on top of their benefits, the program will continue to grow, she said.

A part of that will come from working with community partners, Baker said. Within the Community Partners Support Unit, there are over 200 organizations statewide that are already active within the community. About 80 are allowing their clients to sit with DHSS staff at their locations to do the benefits application process. 

"While they are building a relationship with a specific organization, instead of saying to them that they are done, now you can go to a state service center, we eliminate that and allow them to at least do the application process at the (partner) site," she said. "Even within the libraries, we'll have our partners bring their clients with them if they think it is going to be a situation where there might be a lot of questions. We try to accommodate them the best we can."

On Wednesday, peer support staff from Restart-Recovery Innovations were on hand to learn more about the program. They believe that partnering with the DHSS program will help their clients even more.

Shafonda Horsey is one of the peer support staff for Restart in Kent and Sussex counties. She said the program, which serves substance abuse and mental healh-challenged clients, has five teams who counsel 30-40 people each. She said working with the state social workers at the different library locations will allow them to do more for their clients.

"Most of the clients I work with haven't even initiated signing up for benefits and don't even know where to start the process because they never needed to apply," she said. "Most of them had good jobs and fell into some sort of a crisis and don't have income now, so they have never needed these benefits."

Connecting people to services as easily and efficiently as possible is what DHSS aims to do.

"The only way this will work is if they know how to do it," Baker said. "If that actually means we have to go over it and over it more, we will do that to ensure this program is a success." 

Schedule for social workers in Delaware libraries

• Seaford Public Library, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Mondays

• Route 9 Library, New Castle, 1 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays

• Dover Public Library, 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays

• Wilmington Public Library - Rodney Square, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays

• Selbyville Public Library, 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Thursdays

• Frankford Public Library, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Thursdays

• North Wilmington Public Library, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Fridays

Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.