In an interview series led by AEA Consulting Senior Associate, Dr. Kathryn (Kit) Matthew, we explore how organizations are approaching mental wellness, the programs they are implementing, and the noticeable differences they are seeing within their community. In this interview, we hear from John F. Szabo about the Los Angeles Public Library's pivot over the past five years to better support the mental wellness of all its patrons.
The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) serves the 4 million residents of the City of Los Angeles, the largest metropolitan population of any public library system in the United States. In addition to the Central Library located in the heart of Los Angeles, this library system operates 72 branch libraries throughout the 503 square-mile (1302 square-kilometer) city, which is incredibly diverse in terms of its people, economies, and its geography, including coastal communities, inland valleys and low mountains. The library system is overseen by a Board of Library Commissioners appointed by the mayor. Its annual operating budget is .03% of the assessed value of property within the City of Los Angeles. During City Librarian John F. Szabo’s tenure of more than 12 years, the operating budget has grown from around $100M to $269M.
The library has been nationally recognized for providing city residents with social, educational, and cultural services. This includes library programs that help people on their path to citizenship, earn their high school diploma, manage personal finances and small businesses, and access health and well-being services and resources. Despite its successes, the library and its partner city agencies and nonprofits have faced even more extraordinary demands from patrons experiencing unstable mental and living conditions.
Mental Health Support at LAPL: Crisis Response vs. Wellness Promotion
Our library serves community members across all adult age groups and cultural backgrounds who are seeking mental health resources. Their needs range from self-help materials to professional mental health referrals.
We apply a trauma-informed care philosophy, as do many public libraries. This recognizes the pervasive impact of trauma on individuals and adjusts service delivery accordingly. The Trauma-Informed Framework for Supporting Patrons shifts from asking "What's wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?"; acknowledging behaviors as adaptive responses to past trauma. Core principles include ensuring safety, building trust, respecting client choice, fostering collaboration, and empowering individuals.
Our crisis-response approach offers services to address immediate mental health emergencies through programs such as “The Source”, which offers on-site Mental Health and Social Service (MHSS) organizations for patrons experiencing homelessness or mental health crises. We also have the Library Experience Office (LibEx) staff trained in trauma-informed principles to recognize and respond to acute situations. In addition to staff social workers, the Library has contracts with MHSS providers, along with peace practitioners (Urban Alchemy) as well as nonprofits engaged in wellness and expression (Urban Voices). We rely upon contract partners to help provide ongoing in-house crisis response capabilities. Some of our patrons in crisis may be experiencing homelessness, mental health emergencies, substance abuse issues, or other challenges requiring specialized support beyond what library staff can reasonably provide.
Our preventative approach offers services that foster connection and emotional well-being between staff and patrons and between patrons. For example, we offer community wellness workshops (Urban Voices Music Wellness Lab), library meditation spaces, book clubs focused on mental health literature, and creative expression programs (Urban Voices’ Neighborhood Sing programs at Central Library and branches).
These two complementary approaches exist on a continuum. LAPL’s holistic strategy acknowledges that by supporting overall community wellness through accessible programming and safe spaces, the Library helps prevent crises while being prepared to respond when they occur.
AEA: How did LAPL identify community opportunities to improve mental health/wellness?
Our approach to understanding community issues included listening to staff feedback and reviewing incident reports, noting what was happening on the ground across our branches, large and small. Upon reflection, they all converged on providing services for library patrons with untreated mental illness and the unhoused population, as well equipping staff to deescalate patrons in crisis.
LAPL has established new specialized staff roles like community service representatives (CSR) and social workers who have deeper training and can support front-line staff and CSRs. LAPL is creating a quick crisis reference guide, available on the staff intranet, as well as scenario-based training. We approach all staff training with longer term thinking. This means investing in training staff grounded in a trauma-informed pro-active response framework for library patrons, building a Safety Advisory Board from staff to help with access to information, unique orientations for contract security guards, and installing a large-scale camera and badge access project for all 73 libraries to help with security measures and safety. Fundamentally we had to ask: how do we put more tools into our toolbox? We want to free up our staff to do what they do best. We at LAPL own this work together across the library system.
Can you tell us more about how LAPL is uniquely positioned to take on this kind of work, and why now?
We welcome everyone and treat them with respect. We can succeed in this because: 1) We have ongoing relationships with those under duress and can leverage that existing trust and understanding. Those who are unhoused or with untreated mental illness may be with us in a library every day, and we leverage that familiarity. 2) Our strategy is not driven by our wanting to be a social services provider. The Library’s role is always growing and expanding, and when this is what’s happening in our community, it is happening in the Library. This is necessary work, and we embrace that we may be people’s first option. 3) The library is a trusted institution, and everyone, including–and maybe especially–those experiencing crises or impoverished circumstances are always treated with dignity. This is a different attitude from what they may receive at another public space, and it can be overwhelming at the coordinated entry level for Los Angeles Homeless Services the city provides. And 4) Generally, public libraries are good partners and nimble at scaling and adapting approaches.
How did you find “unlikely partners” and what are these entities’ roles?
One example of bringing “unlikely partners” together is our ongoing program, “The Source.” Central Library is close to Skid Row, where many individuals in crisis live in unhealthy and unstable conditions. Skid Row is a roughly 50-block area in downtown L.A. that contains one of America’s largest concentrated homeless populations with approximately 2,000-4,000 people living in tents and makeshift shelters. Many suffer from untreated mental illness. We invite 12-15 city agencies onsite so these individuals can have “one-stop-shopping” to meet their life needs. This includes social services such as housing and health; social security; Department of Motor Vehicles: Metro (City transportation) to provide free tokens; nonprofit organizations that supply personal care kits such as shampoo, bandages, etc.
Urban Voices is an example of a partner who brings a nontraditional, enriching program to our patrons. This small nonprofit in Los Angeles has a standing contract with the library, meaning we can draw upon them as needed. Their staff are clinically trained in counselling, wellness, and mental health. Every Thursday afternoon, they host a sing-along at Central Library.
Can you tell us more about your work and what you are hoping to learn and/or share?
The term “Library Experience” represented a significant shift for our library. For the first time, LAPL has a dedicated office to work within the library staffing to help make the library safe and welcoming for all. That means suggesting rehab for someone for recovery from substance abuse, connecting patrons with housing, and addressing staff trauma experienced in one of our public spaces.
The Library Experience staff can deploy their empathetic attitudes and mental health coaching skills in other unforeseen circumstances. For example, during the past year's extreme Los Angeles area fires, our social workers went with library outreach teams into shelters and disaster recovery centers. While library outreach staff offered storytime programs and loaned WiFi hot spots, the social workers were deployed to the Disaster Recovery Center and FEMA shelters to provide victims with emotional support and connection to much-needed resources.
We hear directly about how our work changes lives. Here is an example about a patron (J) who was frequenting the Valley Plaza Branch Library. A staff CSR met J in March 2024. He shared a powerful story about his former role as a property manager who helped house individuals; however, after losing his job, he himself became unhoused. CSR and this patron spoke for months, trying to find him a job by pursuing any employment opportunity that came his way. After CSR was able to establish a connection with the local Hope of the Mission, CSR was able to help J find a temporary placement at a Tiny Home in North Hollywood. After a month on a waiting list, CSR's relationship with Hope of the Mission aided in J's housing placement.
Update from Patron as of November 2024:
Dear CSR,
I wanted to take this time to express my gratitude for knowing you. Now 6 months later I am grateful for having met you and bringing me resources! I was at the hardest time of my life when I was literally in the rain, cold to the core & getting sick - and you provided motivation and when I expressed to you what avenues were not working you attended to finding solutions that worked - I am currently restructuring my job search/goals to become mobile again. The time you have given me has been invaluable. Thank You !!!
What role does staff hiring and training play in the success of mental health and wellness programming?
We extend a trauma-informed approach to our staff training and library system operations. We explain the strategy behind this to staff, and the LibEx SW and CSRs, as well as MHSS contractors, work shoulder-to-shoulder with our library staff, modeling the recommended behavior towards patrons.
We also share success stories with our staff and others. A big piece of being successful in this work is cultivating staff buy-in. LibEx works closely with security and will call the CSR or SW to help with challenging patrons. For example, LibEx has clothing, hygiene supplies, protein bars, socks, footwear, first aid kits, and more, and will work with a patron so they can stay in the library. If they come in without a shirt, security will call and see if LibEx can help.
LAPL's security model includes LAPD non-sworn security officers supplemented by private security contractors when police positions remain unfilled. All security personnel receive "Library 101" training covering public access and privacy principles. Front-line library staff are trusted to determine when situations require security intervention versus assistance from Library Experience staff, and we rely on the judgment of our staff.
What is the internal governance and visibility of your mental wellness focus within your organisation?
Our mental health services are part of the library’s core operating budget. Unlike some other public libraries, our mental health and wellness programs (including our staff social worker positions) are not funded by a city’s or county’s department of mental health. This work is also not funded as a shared service--meaning with contributions made from other departments. We are responsible for 100% of costs for our social work and related programs.
How are you tracking impact?
We communicate our priorities and budget alignments with each Mayor's administration throughout their term. Our outreach strategy includes engaging City Commissioners and Council members, as well as media.
We measure effectiveness through concrete metrics: social workers track hours, outcomes, and referrals (they provide referrals rather than complete case management). Our Source and other resource fairs unite service agencies, and we monitor partnership engagement and contacts. This data is selectively reported while maintaining appropriate privacy. Our CSRs track daily interactions with patrons and staff. The SWs use Charity Tracker (metric program) to track everything they do.
Program expansion has been organic, with branch managers who experience positive outcomes becoming advocates with other library managers, helping to build a supportive culture throughout our library system. We face minimal resistance because we’re positioned as not just responding to societal challenges but proactively making a difference. This approach generates significant goodwill and portrays the library as being plugged into the community.
What advice would you have for other cultural organisations engaging in this work?
Your organization’s size doesn’t matter; it’s about the big picture of where your library, museum, or cultural organization sits in the community and what it can uniquely and realistically bring to the table. It’s equity work to enable every resident to flourish. Do we mean it when we say we want to touch everyone, and that we want everyone to benefit from our efforts? You have to think differently about communications, language, the patrons in your spaces, and the issues they bring into your space. The Library eagerly serves absolutely everyone, and we are committed to keeping our public spaces accessible to all Angelenos. It is part of our mission to enrich, educate, and empower, whether that includes helping people find a book on modern architecture or finding someone a place to sleep. There is also the underlying impact of taking on this type of mental wellness work. It positions your institution as being dynamic and embedded in the community - which, in turn, helps with your advocacy, philanthropy, and outreach efforts.