The Living Room @ Your Library
Houston Public Library, Texas
Innovation Synopsis
The Living Room transcends the neighborhood library into the community’s living room where neighbors meet neighbors for meaningful conversations over coffee, tea and food. A strategic platform that builds understanding and social cohesion, the Living Room series has grown to 20 events across Houston in one year, engaging 3,000+ Houstonians.
Challenge/Opportunity
With Houston being the most diverse city in the nation, one of the greatest learning opportunities we have is from each other; however, Houston is spread out, and communities can remain in silos. Using The Living Room as a flexible tool to explore many topics, the library becomes the gathering place for neighbors to meet regularly, grow in understanding of different backgrounds, build relationships while learning from one another and address community issues together.
Key Elements of Innovation
The Living Room has three key components: (1) Library leads the community on a topic; (2) Community participates in discussion; (3) Food is served, featuring local vendors and international foods. Planning begins with engaging local partners to learn what the community needs in the long term. The library becomes the gathering place for local communities, exploring a range of topics from understanding different cultures, to safety, finance and mental health in a comfortable, trusting environment.
Achieved Outcomes
In one year since launching the program, 20 Living Room events have occurred covering 15 themes, representing 20 countries and partnering with 75 community organizations and local businesses. Attendance has grown 200 percent from the first six months, with average attendance of 150 per event. Themes include kitchen traditions from Houston’s top seven Spanish-speaking countries for Hispanic Heritage Month, speed-friending for language learning, meeting refugee neighbors from 10 countries, Hurricane Harvey memories and summer safety.
