Transatlantic knowledge transfer and mutual learning are particularly important to us as a network. We are therefore all the more delighted about this outcome of the city partnership between Kiel and San Francisco as an example of the vibrant network between the Bay Areas:

During the visit of Maureen Singleton and Michelle Jeffers from the San Francisco Public Library as part of the Kiel City Partnership Forum, there was also an opportunity for an exchange with the team from the Kiel Office for Culture and Continuing Education on the common topic of participation and the questions:

• How can public places become spaces of humanity and social responsibility?
• How can we connect people who need help with support services at an early stage?

From inspiration to pilot project
In 2014, the SFPL was the first library in the US to integrate social workers into its team—a model that has since been adopted nationwide. In Germany, this approach is still new. The state capital of Kiel is now leading the way with a pilot project, offering social counseling directly in the central library one afternoon a week, in a low-threshold and unbureaucratic manner.

Johanna Göb, Head of the Office for Culture and Continuing Education:
„We want to contribute to making Kiel a more democratic and socially just city. That's why our plans also focus on people who, for various reasons, find it more difficult to participate in social life. We were inspired by the work of our colleagues at the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), with whom we have been in close contact for several years.“

Social work in the library is a building block for the further development of cultural institutions in the New Town Hall. This planning process by the Office for Culture and Continuing Education is supported by „Übermorgen – Neue Modelle für Kulturinstitutionen“ (The Day After Tomorrow – New Models for Cultural Institutions), an initiative of the Federal Cultural Foundation.