Cumberland County library system creates community navigator position

Cumberland County residents can now get additional help in accessing resources by visiting their local library, director Faith Phillips said in a Monday presentation to the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners. 

During the board’s final meeting of 2023, Phillips provided an overview of the community navigator position, which she said she created by repurposing two existing library jobs. Phillips said she saw a need for the position in the results of two community surveys conducted in 2019 and 2020. 

“Some of the major takeaways were the need to continue to support members of our community who may need access and connection to resources beyond the scope of what our library staff are equipped to provide,” she said. “Many libraries have been hiring social workers or community navigators.” 

Ray Santini, the system’s new community navigator, will work at each of the eight county library branches, though he will be based at the county’s main library in downtown Fayetteville, Phillips said. 

“This position is not a typical 8 to 5, Monday through Friday position,” she said. “The community navigator will be scheduling hours when needed to meet our community members where they are.” 

Santini will help library customers find the best resources to deal with issues related to homelessness and food insecurity, while also working to train library staff on such topics and partner with local agencies tackling those problems, Phillips said. 

“In the future, we hope to implement standing office hours at regular intervals at all of our library locations so that all community members can come and connect with our community navigator for their advanced information and resource needs,” she said. 

In a brief introduction to the board, Santini said he graduated from Fayetteville State University with a bachelor’s of social work and has experience working on the ground in Cumberland County through the Salvation Army and Cumberland HealthNET, connecting people with resources related to housing.

“Servicing folks is not a problem for me — connecting them, reaching out to other resources, organizations, agencies,” he said. “There are some newer faces, and gaining their trust is gonna be some work that I’ve gotta get done.” 

In other business:

• Commissioners once again heard the results of the county’s financial audit for fiscal year 2023, which began on July 1, 2022, and ended on June 30 of this year. The county received a clean bill of health from auditing firm Cherry Bekaert.
• The board voted unanimously to approve transferring $34.6 million from its general fund balance to its capital investment fund. According to a presentation from Vicki Evans, the county’s finance director, Cumberland County has a standard policy of transferring any unassigned money remaining in its general fund balance after the previous fiscal year that exceeds 15% of the total fund balance. The county had a general fund balance of $330.6 million at the end of fiscal year 2023, Evans said.
• The board unanimously approved its consent agenda, which included an interlocal agreement with the city of Fayetteville to renovate the historic Orange Street School for future recreational programming aimed at Cumberland County youth.
• The board unanimously approved an amendment to the county code permitting it to expand its jurisdiction over housing and nonresidential building codes to any municipalities that request the county do so. This currently includes the towns of Stedman, Falcon, Eastover, Linden and Godwin, according to the Nov. 20 meeting agenda.
• The board unanimously approved three rezoning cases. Two of the rezoning cases requested rezoning property to residential zones in order to build mobile homes on the lots in question, while the third case requested rezoning a rural residential district to a commercial district so the owner could expand his self-storage business.
• The board unanimously reappointed Wilbert J. Stitt to the Mid-Carolina Aging Advisory Council.
• The board voted unanimously to appoint Nathan Cuffee and Raqi Barnett to the Civic Center Commission.

Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.

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