The Disconnected

Blanca, 24, got pregnant in her sophomore year of high school and dropped out to care for her son because there was no support at her school for student parents. Blanca lives with her mother. She is trying to get her GED but has to work at least part-time to support her son, whom she brings to the library to use the computer.

James is 18. He started selling drugs when he was 16 and made a lot of money. Most of his transactions took place during school hours, so he dropped out to make the most of his business. Now he wants to stop selling but doesn’t know how he will manage without a high school diploma or other skills. James uses the public library to check his email.

Roberta is 20. She enjoyed school and did well on class work but suffered from test anxiety and never was able to pass the standardized exams. Her father didn’t have money for a tutor, but she stayed in school until a guidance counselor told her she was too old and didn’t have enough credits to graduate. Feeling she had no other option, Roberta dropped out. She updates her MySpace page at the library a couple of times a week.

These profiles, though fictional, are fairly typical depictions of the disconnected adult population in the United States. Roughly 3.8 million people nationwide between the ages of 18 and 24 are neither in school nor employed, according to the National League of Cities. That translates to one in six adults in this age group.

Many organizations, forums, national advocacy groups, and the like use the term disconnected youth when approaching this subject. And some would argue that the topic should be reserved for youth services librarians. The vast majority of the “disconnected” self-identify as adults, however. They rarely use the teen room and would most likely approach an adult services reference desk or seek access to the adult computer terminals. They are young, to be sure, but have adult needs, are often parents themselves, and have very real adult problems. Libraries can and should help them.

The disconnected are already in the library. It is often the only place they can access the Internet, send emails, or be engaged in a normal, structured activity. Young parents are likely to be a part of regular story times. In fact, disconnected individuals are probably some of our more regular customers.

In the larger scope, people who are not working and not attending school and don’t have a supporting and caring family have a huge impact on local communities and government entities. Prolonged unemployment leads to increased poverty, homelessness, and crime. The disconnected are not very likely to be involved in their communities and are, therefore, a drain. The opportunities for any educational attainment are very slim and diminish even further when they are parents, since a negative pattern and cycle develop. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the disconnecteds tend to report being in worse health and make up disproportionately higher percentages of the nation’s prison and death row inmates.

Ultimately, these factors create insuperable economic and social challenges for this group that we, as librarians, cannot ignore. Beyond the core humanitarian issue of helping a person in need, we work in one of the last great democratic institutions and are likely to be serving these customers every day. Every public entity, but particularly a library, is positioned in the community to touch the lives of these adults.

While the pressures that create the disconnects in these people’s lives are complex and highly individual, there are a number of recurring contributing factors.

The most common is truancy. Often students in middle school or in the first or second year of high school gain more freedom from both the family and the school. They discover how easy it is to skip class, and it becomes a habit. Most return to class only to discover that they have missed so much as to be perpetually behind. They get discouraged, fail one class or perhaps a grade, and, finally, drop out.

There are widespread reports of school “pushout,” whereby a student exhibits difficulty in passing the high-stakes performance exams, isn’t offered tutoring, and doesn’t know where to go for help. This cycle of failure frustrates both the school and student. The student, whose low scores have an adverse effect on the school’s performance, becomes a “liability” for the school. With the advent of No Child Left Behind, schools are forced to produce results. Students who simply cannot pass the tests are discouraged from staying, are given no alternatives, and are, effectively, pushed out.

The cycle of failure often starts in the freshman or sophomore year of high school. Students who have enjoyed social promotion policies or have just gotten by become overwhelmed by more demanding math (especially algebra) and language arts. They might have a good overall average but fail a few classes—maybe only one. Since it is rare for them to see a guidance counselor, many of these students reach their senior year expecting to graduate, only to be told that the failed algebra class has kept them from having sufficient credits. When faced with the option of staying in school, they are often more willing to drop out, thinking they are too old. Students often don’t know and are not advised about their legal right to remain in school or any alternatives. They see the GED as a viable option even though they may read at the sixth grade level or below.

Along with academic struggles, teen parents, homeless teens, illegal immigrants, and runaways are more likely to drop out. The majority of disconnecteds are people of color, notably African Americans and Latinos. And the problem is on the rise, with 20,000 per year aging out of foster care, and 200,000 per year leaving juvenile correctional facilities.

The good news is that the National League of Cities has studied the attributes of this population and reports that the disconnected display a capacity for hard work, learn quickly, and, probably most surprising given their situation, are idealistic. Additionally, they relate well to team structure, particularly small groups.

Librarians have a role to play in providing services that can help the disconnected. The library as a place for social and personal networking is well established. Our resource-rich environments provide the information these adults need to support their families and minimize their reliance on public assistance. Youth services librarians have been working for years with younger at-risk populations and can be a great resource for adult services librarians in designing appealing programs, marketing tools, and outreach campaigns.

Librarians can also be key players in enhancing cross-system collaboration among city, county, state, and community agencies, via the following resources:

Connect them to jobs Many libraries provide job search services with special collections, designated staff, and special programming on job readiness. The library can be a hub for job announcements and host job fairs. Minimally, a library can prepare pathfinders and displays targeted to the needs of this group. Since many libraries have a small army of part-time employees, the library can also provide transitional job opportunities—part-time and in the summer.

Connect them to school Libraries can provide targeted enrichment activities. Computer training, pre-GED, arts, media, and test-prep sessions are popular and relevant. At “Plugged-In,” a computer center in East Palo Alto, CA, low-income residents learn how to design web sites for local community-based organizations and small neighborhood businesses, thus providing computer help and acquiring marketable job skills simultaneously. Libraries can leverage their computer assets to pull off these kinds of nontraditional, high-interest education programs and significantly level the playing field for disconnected adults.

Libraries’ development and delivery of basic literacy (or pre-GED) curricula that target the disconnected are just getting started. The Brooklyn Public Library has an extensive pre-GED program with a designated coordinator. The J.H. Wootters Crockett Public Library in Crockett, TX, just launched its fourth pre-GED class. National organizations like the Thinkfinity Literacy Network, National Center for Family Literacy, and ProLiteracy Worldwide offer free tools and practical advice. Most communities deliver adult literacy programs through their community colleges, city offices, or school districts. These are tailor-made partners and support systems. The Pima County Public Library in Tucson, AZ, is one library currently partnering with the community college, offering in-house GED prep and online practice tests. At Queens Library’s Far Rockaway Library for Teens, NY, the newly formed literacy group, which ranges in age from 17 to 24, has solid attendance. Participants report a high level of satisfaction with the program. They say that the main reasons it works for them, when school did not, are the involvement of a relatively small group and the support they get from one another.

Connect them to emotional support Many disconnected adults also lack a caring and supportive family structure. Thus, the role of the library as a social gathering place cannot be overstated. Libraries can organize facilitated discussion groups. Also, consider hiring youth counselors instead of security personnel; it’s a better way to engage all customers—but especially young people—on a regular basis. Queens Library uses Juvenile Justice grants to hire hourly rate counselors who have education or social work backgrounds. Their job is to mentor youth—talk with and engage them. Librarians often say, “We’re not social workers,” but that doesn’t mean libraries can’t support the need for social work activity on the premises. If there are insufficient funds to hire counselors, the local social work agency, United Way, Catholic Charities, and/or social work school at the local college may be able to provide interns or discussion facilitators as a program event. A social worker–facilitated discussion group, like Queens Library’s “Guy Talk,” can be on your monthly calendar.

Most disconnected adults report that they started falling behind in middle school. This is when young people start looking outside the family unit for meaningful relationships. At today’s public schools, guidance counselors in the middle school are almost nonexistent. Therefore, library programs and other offerings that target the middle school group are especially important. After-school homework help or book buddy programs are simple to implement. Young customers in this group are always offering to help, so libraries can organize service activities. A junior Friends group, perhaps, is one way to keep them involved in a positive way.

In its “Public Librarians as Partners in Youth Development” report, from 1999, the Wallace Foundation presents compelling evidence that the library can have measurable positive impact on youth-based programming and opportunities for service learning. The report summarizes findings from a national survey on library services for young people and suggests better ways to meet the ever-increasing challenges of providing meaningful and productive programming for youth. It highlights several innovative activities that could be models for libraries seeking to improve services for out-of-school customers; anyone interested in serving this group should read it.

At least one library, the Phoenix Public Library (PPL), has institutionalized its programming targeting the disconnected. As part of the citywide “Get Connected” committee, Terry Ann Lawler, assistant manager of the Palo Verde branch, has been working with other agencies to provide comprehensive services for the past two years. In West Phoenix, Lawler serves a very diverse community with a high Spanish-speaking and immigrant population.

Success happens one person at a time. Take the very true story of Onyx, for example. Serious family troubles and other factors contributed to his dropping out of school. Through active participation in PPL’s Get Connected activities, Onyx, 17, is now a senior at Metropolitan Arts Institute in Phoenix and will graduate this year. An actor and artist, he says his goals for the next year include applying to the San Francisco Art Institute and New York Film Academy; he is interested in finding financial assistance. Next steps for Onyx include filling out an online FAFSA form at the library and checking out books on scholarships.

Finding money for these programs is a challenge, but unless a Request for Proposals (RFP) says “not libraries,” your project is eligible. (See the Link List for information on funding sources that have supported programs in libraries.)

Working in partnership with police, schools, and other community allies to develop comprehensive services is a great way to get started. But don’t re-invent the wheel; sharing resources and data with other organizations strengthens a proposal. This is a national crisis that many cities recognize. Albany, Boston, San Diego, Baltimore, New York, and Birmingham, AL, are just a few of the cities already actively engaged in addressing the needs of the disconnected. Libraries should be as central to these efforts as possible.

There are more public libraries in the United States than there are McDonald’s franchises. Our presence in almost every neighborhood ensures that we are uniquely positioned to provide services to disconnected adults, and many of them, in fact, already know that we offer a welcoming, resource-rich environment, free computer access, and a gathering place. Ironically, cities expend thousands of dollars on “pilots” whose major obstacle is recruiting and retaining participants, when the library is already full of young people, every day, who have self-selected our facilities. We already have the meeting rooms, resources, and highly educated and trained specialists. As such, libraries are in a position to be part of the solution. Blanca, James, and Roberta are waiting.

Video
Degyansky discusses the Disconnected in this LJ video.