No refgrunt tonight because I'm completely traumatized by one of the questions I got and how hard it was to answer. A patron needed emergency shelter tonight to escape a really terrible home situation. I called every number in our community resources book and on the county's web sites and every shelter I tried was completely filled. I spent time on the domestic violence hotline and the shelter-bed hotline, got numbers from shelters of other shelters to try, and still had no luck. We're talking shelters that house women who are victims of domestic violence in the San Jose area, home to almost a million people, and every bed was full. So either our area is woefully unprepared to help people in these situations or the numbers of people who need this type of help right now has outpaced all the available resources. Either way, it is really a bad situation. First, I can't believe how hard it was to get through to people and try to find a place -- I can't imagine being scared and alone and trying to deal with the runaround. I was completely traumatized by it and I was just trying to help a patron.
When I get home, I'm making a donation to the Support Network for Battered Women. They weren't able to help her, but they were nice about it and gave it a good try.
There was a relatively happy ending. The other librarian who came in when my shift changed called the non-emergency number for the local police who apparently, at their discretion, sometimes give people vouchers for a local motel. No guarantees that it will work out, but at least it was a place for her to go next when all the tries we made had failed. I hope that she finds the help she needs and can safely get out of danger.
This shouldn't have been so hard -- there are so many local resources who are there to help... I was completely confident that I would be able to find something and get her help. I never expected to have to try so many places and end up not being able to connect her with someone who could swoop in and handle the crisis. I'm proud that the library is the place someone can turn to when they need to be referred to the right community resources to help, but wish the result had been more encouraging.
Posted by Emily at October 6, 2005 07:53 PM