(From left) Read to Recovery program managers Jennifer Patterson and Jennifer Shepley at Midlothian Library
The Chesterfield Public Library is taking a novel approach to reducing the local impact of the opioid crisis. Read to Recovery, a new program at select branches in the county, adds addiction recovery resources to library shelves.
As part of Chesterfield County’s larger mobile outreach program, which connects local communities with harm reduction resources such as medication lock bags and opioid overdose medication, Read to Recovery kicked off in September during National Recovery Month at the library’s Chester, Meadowdale and Midlothian branches. The standalone shelves are stocked with literature on addiction recovery, overdose medication such as Narcan, and informative materials on aid and recovery programs.
The idea for the effort came after Jennifer Patterson, administrator for the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, asked county employees about how to reach and help community members suffering from opioid addiction. An employee at the Midlothian branch shared a story about a San Francisco Public Library program offering books and other educational materials to aid recovery; soon after, Chesterfield County launched its own pilot program with $20,000 in grant funding from OAA.
Resources in the Read to Recovery section at Midlothian Library
All branches of Chesterfield County’s libraries already stock overdose medication to distribute without question, and since the Midlothian branch distributes the most of these resources, it was an ideal location to host the program, Patterson says. “Chester Library and Meadowdale Library are in parts of the county that tend to see the highest overdose rates,” she adds, “so we chose those locations to house the collection as well.”
The Read to Recovery section at Midlothian Library
To decide which titles to offer, the library’s collection management team reviewed books available through county-approved vendors and cross-referenced those options with materials offered in San Francisco and other library systems with similar programs. The team settled on 13 titles, and the library purchased 60 copies of each, then included additional materials such as how to get Narcan and information for family members helping others recover.
Because of the stigma often associated with addiction recovery, the library system’s community services manager, Jennifer Shepley, says the signage for the Read to Recovery sections is intentionally limited, and community members can take materials home without the need to interact with library staff or even return the material. “There’s no checking it out,” she says, “no tying it to your record.”
Since launching three months ago, the program has attracted the attention of other branches across the county. Several have expressed interest in expanding Read to Recovery to their locations, Shepley says, and share the vision of increasing drug addiction awareness in the region while providing accessible recovery support.
“The road to recovery is different for lots of different people, so this just offers another avenue to support folks,” Patterson says. “So, just to be able to offer that as an option is a pretty incredible thing that Chesterfield is doing.”
