Each year, thousands of Brooklyn residents return home from incarceration and face immediate barriers—housing, employment, health care, and stigma. Returning residents visit library branches to access library computers, navigate complex social services or pursue education and training. They may experience disconnection from support systems and turn to libraries as familiar low-stigma space to reconnect with community. Public libraries are uniquely positioned to meet people at this vulnerable moment. Library-based reentry work is also rooted in BPL’s commitments to equity and inclusion due to disproportionate impacts of incarceration on different neighborhoods. Incarceration affects family members, neighbors, and communities we serve. Dinners are designed to extend a welcoming low barrier space, in a role that uniquely suits the library. The innovation utilizes the he strengths of the library as a public space that centers information access, literacy, and community connection.

Monthly Welcome Home Dinners at BPL provide hot meal and create a safe, welcoming space where returning residents connect with one another, and serve as an entry point to learn about library services including navigation, job help, and adult education classes. Dinners take place in the Great Hall of the Library’s Center for Brooklyn History. Programs have included readings by formerly incarcerated writers, art exhibition tours, and presentations by partners such as Parole Prep, Columbia University Urban Legal Clinic, and Parenting Inside Out. Dinners are open to the public and have been attended by family members, mutual aide groups, and community advocates. One innovative aspect of the design was to approach formerly incarcerated participants not seen as a “bundle of needs” but as contributors and co-creators. The Dinners create an organic community of mutual support, where participants share resources, encouragement, and strategies for moving forward.

Last year’s total attendance in Welcome Home dinners was 169 and 20 partners with an average 19 patrons per dinner. The program measures attendance, referrals to housing, career services, and social services and collects feedback and written reflections. Welcome Home dinners have an ongoing impact on individuals' sense of belonging, agency, stability, and opportunity, experiences that research shows correlate to long term positive outcomes for participants. One participant wrote: “When I first got out of prison I had a sinking feeling that I was alone although I have a family they did not know how to accept me back into the family…Then they told me about the dinner. I wont go into how delicious the food was more importantly the atmosphere was electric I felt like I was amongst family we related on on levels we were laughing, networking and telling our stories and they actually listened. The next dinner will be my 4th I can't wait. My life is more full since welcome home! Thanx!"