Although libraries historically have focused on providing access to information, many libraries have expanded their scope to offer additional resources to their communities, such as computer and internet access, food bank programming, and language and literacy classes. Libraries tend to be trusted and welcoming spaces in which individuals from diverse backgrounds access valuable programs and resources at no cost. Therefore, embedding mental health support in library programming can feel like a natural fit, especially for communities with growing mental health needs and a lack of traditional mental health resources. In this toolkit, the authors draw from Libraries for Health (L4H), a mental health pilot program that aims to build community capacity for mental health and well-being by embedding mental health support in public libraries. L4H emerged from a partnership among St. David’s Foundation, RAND, Via Hope, and ten public libraries in central Texas in response to critical mental health needs and a shortage of mental health care providers. In collaboration with members of this partnership, RAND researchers developed this toolkit to share lessons learned in the L4H pilot. This toolkit is designed to help librarians identify and implement mental health supports within libraries to support their patrons’ mental well-being. It starts with a description of the rationale for incorporating mental health supports in libraries and a brief summary of how libraries approached this effort in the L4H pilot. The toolkit focuses on guiding librarians through the steps of successfully adding new mental health supports within their library environments.

Tools for Life®: Relationship-Building Solutions (TFL) is a program designed to improve school climate and safety through the proactive development of elementary and middle school students' interpersonal skills (relationship-building and communication) and intrapersonal skills (self-regulation and resiliency). In the 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 school years, the Jackson (Mississippi) Public School District (JPSD) implemented TFL in grades 1 through 8. RAND researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether TFL, integrated into existing school practices, positively affected school climate and safety in the district. In this report, they describe the implementation of TFL in JPSD, calculate its costs, and evaluate the program's effectiveness.,TFL is designed to improve whole-school change in relationships among staff and students, but the authors found that implementation of TFL in JPSD schools was generally shallow, and the program was rarely, if at all, implemented across a whole school as it was designed. TFL had little impact: After one year of implementation, there were no practically or statistically significant differences between schools that implemented TFL and those that did not in measures of students' social and emotional, school climate, behavioral, or achievement outcomes. In addition to the uneven implementation of the program, the authors discuss how methodological limitations of the study and contextual factors in JPSD may have contributed to these findings.