A novel idea for Kingston's homeless friends (From Kingston Guardian)

A novel idea for Kingston's homeless friends

8:04pm Monday 15th March 2010

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Kingston Libraries have come up with a scheme to make the Borough's public libraries a more welcoming place for its homeless communities.

From this month, the seven public libraries in the Kingston Borough will accept a signed letter from temporary accomodation hostels as proof of ID, which is required to join a library.

"The scheme gives homeless people the opportunity to become functional members of society and gain self esteem."

Mike Treacy, reading and literacy manager

The general rule is that applicants are usually required to provide identification with proof of their address, such as a utility bill, in order to join a library.

However, this is not possible for homeless people, as they do not have a permanent place of residence.

Scott Herbertson, Head of Cultural Services and Lifelong Learning, said: "We realised that for many homeless people this is not practical, preventing them from using the many services that our libraries offer.

"This simple move will make our services more accessible to the wider community. Whether it is to help people stay mentally active or to facilitate continued learning, libraries play an integral, beneficial role to all our residents."

The scheme paves the way for those in temporary accomodation to enjoy full membership of the libraries, including the use of internet and access to a wide range of books, newspapers, magazines, CDs and DVDs.

Mike Treacy, the reading and literacy manager for the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames, who introduced the idea said: "The library should be open to everone in the community. The scheme gives homeless people the opportunity to become functional members of society and gain self esteem."

Mike, who achieves happiness through his job helping the community, has noticed that the homeless use the libraries during winter to get warm, but they never get themselves known from fear, because it is a public library.

"We want to break the barriers and let them know we are here to help them," he said.

With Kingston Libraries' memberships hitting a ten year high record last year in recession, the new measure will help contribute to that and it is hoped to have a knock on effect, said Mike.

Mayor of Kingston Councillor Ian McDonald said: "This is great news, the library service needs to serve those in greatest need and until now the most needy and vulnerable in our society have been excluded from this important facility.

"It is great news that once again Kingston is leading the way in caring for those of our residents that find themselves in difficult circumstances. In particular children who are members of homeless families will be able to borrow books for homework, while older vulnerable residents will be able to access facilities from novels to training literature."

The seven libraries covered by the scheme are the Kingston, New Malden, Surbiton, Hook and Chessington, Tolworth Community, Tudor Drive and Old Malden Libraries.

For more information on Kingston Libraries visit the Kingston Libraries Blog: http://kingstonreads.wordpress.com/

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