2023-0623: BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY'S "WELCOME HOME" PROGRAM IS HERE

Brooklyn Public Library is excited to announce the launch of “Welcome Home,” our new program to support formerly incarcerated patrons. We’d like to invite you to join us for a community partner event on Friday, June 23rd, from 10:30am-12:30pm at the Brooklyn Heights branch. Come hear about the program and then discuss how your organization can refer people to us and use library spaces for your own programming. A light breakfast will be served.

Welcome Home will be active in six branches in the BPL system beginning in July across the Crown Heights, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, East New York, Canarsie, and Brownsville neighborhoods. There are three interconnected parts to Welcome Home:

• one-on-one support for patrons from our two Reentry Navigators;

• regular support group meetings for formerly incarcerated patrons in the branches;

• regular reentry focused programming in the branches through collaborations with community organizations.

We are particularly interested in how we can collaborate with you to bring your programming into the neighborhoods where many of your clients live.

The broad goals of the Welcome Home are to make BPL a more physically and psychologically welcoming space for formerly incarcerated patrons; to establish library branches as resource hubs that connect patrons to a network of supportive organizations and services in the community; and to connect formerly incarcerated patrons to an array of services at BPL.

Please RSVP by replying to this email and feel free to forward the invitation to your colleagues.

If you have any questions, please call me at 347 998 5861.

We hope to see you next week!

Michael Carey (he, him) | Coordinator of Justice Initiatives Brooklyn Public Library 718 230 2710 347 998 5861 (m) brooklynlibrary.org