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The hidden rules of class, the culture of poverty, and barriers to service were among the thought provoking issues demystified and discussed in the Bridges Out of Poverty one-day seminar funded by the Wallace Foundation as part of ULC’s Learning In Libraries (LIL) initiative with three public libraries in New York City.
Jodi Pfarr, a consultant of aha! Process, Inc., led the seminar and defined poverty as “the extent to which an individual does without resources.” Over three days in December, 2005, she challenged the over 600 attendees to discuss their stereotypes of the lives of people experiencing generational poverty and to generate a list of service barriers created within their own libraries, such as monetary fines, limited evening hours, and, in some cases, lack of available child care. Participants brainstormed and charted personal, organization and community responses to poverty that lead to strategic thinking for more effective models of service. Pfarr noted that one of the fatal mistakes often made in public service is the creation of different and oftentimes lower customer service expectations for and interactions with people in generational poverty. She described an alternative model of service that incorporates sharing expectations in all customer service interactions, using behavior modeling and other techniques.
The Bridges Out of Poverty seminar is part of the Learning in Libraries initiative in the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library and the Queens Public Library designed to foster collaboration three key areas of youth services: summer reading, staff training for working successfully with children and youth, and an online homework help website to support the academic needs of New York City students and a new city wide curriculum. Jodi Pfarr, consultant with aha! Process, Inc. and a social worker in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a highly entertaining and engaging facilitator. More information about the Bridges out Poverty training process may be found at www.ahaprocess.com.
Dates: Friday, December 16, Monday, December 19 and Tuesday, December 20, 2005 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Lunch Provided.
Location: Celos Bartos Auditorium, The New York Public Library Research Library, at 42nd and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
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