Bklyn Public Library Recommends
Project Type
Research + Service Design + Design Strategy
Bklyn Public Library Recommends is a pilot program designed to support currently incarcerated individuals prepare to return home. It is focused on creating and building relationships between these individuals and community-based resources. It is designed to be easily integrated with existing reentry infrastructure and services.
Role
MFA Candidate
Parsons, The New School
Client
Brooklyn Public Library
Project Timeline
Sep-Dec, 2018
Challenge
The process of coming home from correctional spaces is complex, challenging to navigate, overwhelming, and anxiety inducing.
Upon exit, folks are met with unreasonable expectations to excel given the immediate challenges of finding homes, work, support groups, education opportunities, and all other means for achieving stability.
A successful exit from correctional facilities and return home to community spaces must be supported by existing relationships.
Approach
A participatory research and co-design process led to focused insights about necessary pre-exit services.
Process included: desk research and ethnographic studies; interviews with BPL staff and other service providers.
We designed and facilitated multiple workshops, included participatory diagramming, journey mapping, and probe- based backcasting exercises.
Findings were synthesized as guidelines to inform ideation and prototyping with the BPL Outreach team.
Outcomes
Bklyn Public Library Recommends allows BPL staff, branch patrons, and community partners to share recommended books and personal letters—on a simple, standardized bookmark—with currently incarcerated individuals. Personalized letters, like these, play an important role to foster relationships and introduce individuals who are currently incarcerated to community based reentry services.
The program relies on BPL’s existing Prison and Jail Library service. This service delivers books directly to individuals who are currently incarcerated.