Poverty is one of the most pervasive problems in Baltimore. Baltimore City Public Schools state, “Over the past 25 years, the city has rarely seen less than one-fifth of its residents living below the poverty level. That figure is well above the nation’s 16% rate, or Maryland’s 10% figure.” More than 80 percent of Baltimore City school students live in low income households. Many of the city's most needy spend their days at the library.

The pilot launched in September 2017 and placed eight social work interns at four library branches. Social work interns both served customers directly through case work and created unique programming to meet community needs. Coffee and Conversation was popular at both Pennsylvania Avenue and South East Anchor. Poppin@The Pratt at the Brooklyn Branch engaged customers in a variety of interactive and informational activities, and Hamilton engaged youth after-school in the first year of the program.

Achieved outcomes for Social Worker in the Library include:

• Over 600 customers were directly served by interns in the first academic year.
• Over 250 staff were trained to deal with crisis management.
• Interns supported customers in dealing with inadequate housing/homelessness, assistance with benefits applications, unemployment, eviction prevention, application assistance, immigration and food insecurity.
• The library developed activities created in collaboration with the Baltimore community.
• Enoch Pratt will hire a FT Social Worker.