UTC alum Natalie Clark sits outside the Chattanooga Public Library, where she will work to support patrons through social work services. Photo by Angela Foster.
Social work often comes with misconceptions.
“A lot of people think the majority of what we do is take children,” said April Wilson, clinical associate professor and director of field education in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Social Work. “I think there’s a grave misunderstanding of how versatile we are.
“One of the phrases we say with our students is, ‘Wherever people are, social work can happen.’”
That work has found a place in a setting with a very strong need—libraries.
In 2019, Wilson reached out to leaders at the Chattanooga Public Library with an idea to embed social work interns in the public library system. Library social work was beginning to take place in pockets across the country, but it was not common, especially in Tennessee.
Librarians were seeing more patrons experiencing homelessness, mental health crises, housing instability and difficulty navigating public benefits systems.
Dr. Cathy Scott, director of UTC’s School of Professional Studies and associate professor of social work, later studied the partnership through focus groups with interns and library staff.
“A social worker comes in and is able to help with things the library can’t necessarily do,” Scott said. “It’s a natural extension between library services and social work services.”
The work often looks like crisis intervention, computer help, housing applications, disability paperwork or simply being a trusted presence for someone who walks through the doors every day.
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March is National Social Work Month. This year’s theme is “Uplift. Defend. Transform.”
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Natalie Clark
Over the next several years, UTC placed social work interns at the downtown branch and, at times, at Eastgate and Northgate libraries.
Natalie Clark was one of those interns.
Clark earned her undergraduate degree in social work from UTC in 2023 and completed her master’s degree last May. During her senior year, she served as a social work intern, working mostly at the downtown branch.
With no existing social work staff, she had to navigate the role mostly on her own.
“You’re in the public library representing social work and social services by yourself,” said Clark, who hails from Ringgold, Georgia. “I was a little baby social worker and had never done social work before.
“I learned so much and I really fell in love with working with unhoused people at the public library, and the staff as well. They are so incredible.”
As an intern, she assisted patrons with things like eviction relief applications during the post-COVID housing crisis. She connected individuals to housing resources, helped navigate benefits and responded to crises as they arose.
“It looked different every 15 minutes,” she said. “There were some people that just wanted to come in and talk on a regular basis, just to have somebody … a safe place they could come to.”
Clark said it was difficult to leave when her internship ended. She saw the value in library social work services and began building a clientele base.
“I was thinking that there needs to be someone here full-time,” she recalled. “The library staff were left with months in the summer without any support. That was a hard hit for them and for the patrons who counted on somebody being there who could help them with social services.”
After years of interns, advocacy, presentations and continued partnership between UTC and the Chattanooga Library, the City of Chattanooga approved funding for a permanent, full-time social worker.
Clark was hired for the role. She officially starts on March 20 as the first full-time library social worker in Chattanooga.
“I cried on the phone when HR called,” Clark said. “It’s like a dream job, a dream come true for me.”
She will primarily be based at the downtown branch, with plans to support other locations when needed. The full-time position will provide year-round consistency, something both library staff and patrons have long needed.
Clinical Associate Professor Harlee Milligan, the Bachelor of Social Work program director, said the hire speaks to Clark’s and other social work students’ work as interns.
“This position would not exist had our students not done that advocacy,” Milligan said. “Yes, we were a part of it, but our social work students are the foundation of the reason why we have this.”
With a licensed social worker on-site, Milligan said UTC can continue placing interns, now with direct supervision available inside the library itself.
“We’re hoping because we’re going to have Natalie there full-time that we’ll actually be able to expand,” Milligan said. “We don’t have to be quite as choosy with the interns because they’ll have that direct supervision, that direct guidance.”
Clark said her responsibilities will mirror much of what the interns have already been doing. It is her responsibility to build and refine what social work looks like inside the library.
“I have all these plans and ideas and hopes for what the future of social services at the public library can be,” Clark said. “It feels crazy. I feel like I’ve not really digested it.”
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