| Submitted by
Jane Tally on 04/10/2002 |
posted 11/21/2000 3:09:40 PM
Since we are on onsite feeding program, we serve a hot, nutritious
midday meal Monday through Friday. Several other churches serve on
the weekends. So food wise, the homeless get at least one really
good meal a day. There are three organizations that provides
street outreach here carrying either food, blankets etc. or
medical and mental health outreach to those living under bridges,
in abandoned buildings or in camps along the river. The feeding
programs usually are just a bowl of chili or sandwiches. One, Honk
and Holler, is run by the Salvation Army and the other ,Uplift ,go
out about 2-3 nights each or more often if the weather is severe.
You might check with your local Salvation Army to see if they
offer a similar service. Also check with the shelters or other
organizations that serve the homeless to see if there is anything
you could hook up with. I belong to the Homeless Services
Coalition, an organization of about 60 agencies that are pretty
tight knit in knowing services available and can refer people to
each other. It's been a good recruiting tool as well. If you want
I can get you phone contacts that are more expert on street
outreach. A local healthcare facility and mental health facility
got a significant HUD continuum of care grant to provide services
to people on the streets and they have done some real exciting
things that get people referred within one day to meet their
needs... no more waiting a month to six weeks to get a mental
health evaluation when you are already in crisis |
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| Submitted by
C.H.E.F.S. on 04/10/2002 |
| posted 11/28/2000 10:50:50 PM
For our C.H.E.F.S. program at Episcopal Community Services we use
a model of street outreach, coupled with outreach to other
homeless service providers (shelters, etc.) in San Francisco.
Successful street outreach (as with any marketing effort) requires
that one "speak" and "be" in the language of the target market. At
Episcopal Community Services, more than 42% of our staff are
formerly homeless, themselves, and that provides some added
benefit to this effort. We have also partnered with local
(neighborhood -- in San Francisco's South of Market area) "on the
street" movements to get the word out. This also includes direct
street outreach on one of the areas of greatest blight in our
"City of St. Francis" -- that being, Sixth Street (home to many
underdeveloped, non-supported housing SROs). The police effort may
prove somewhat helpful to you, although in asking a few of my
colleagues today at Episcopal Community Services, they were rather
wary of anything to do with "the cops." Hope this provides some
insight. Best to you. |
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| Submitted by
Jane Tally, KCCK on 04/10/2002 |
posted 12/1/2000 10:57:29 AM
Linda, it has been our experience that people on the streets are
perhaps the least stable, having more mental illness and substance
abuse and are considered more hard core homeless. For many, it is
their choice to live on the streets and have no desire to change
their life style. We have had better success with people that have
already made some commitment to changing their lives by being in
other programs first. I suggest you contact other social service
agencies that provide either substance abuse programs, case
management, supportive transitional housing, etc. for referrals of
people who really have a desire for a career in food
service/hospitality industry. I have to admit out retention rate
has not been perfect, but we have seen more success with referrals
than walk-ins from the population we serve on a daily basis. One
partner that has been a very good resource is a battered women's
shelter. |
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| Submitted by
Nancy Russman in L'ville on 04/10/2002 |
posted 12/13/2000 10:12:32 AM
Linda, What Jane said is true. If you are wanting to outreach for
students it really isn't a good idea. The population that doesn't
go into shelters doesn't want to. The incident of mental illness
with this population is VERY high. If you are looking into
outreach just with food that would be different. We too have
groups that go out and work with this population, but there is a
church in the downtown area which is close to most of the camps
that serves lunch everyday. They serve a brown bag lunch. The
homeless coming for the food don't even want to go inside so they
just hand out a brown bag and a drink. there is a person there
that is trained to help anyone that wants help, but that is VERY
SELDOM. |
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| Submitted by
Jane Tally, KCCK on 04/10/2002 |
posted 12/13/2000 11:49:18 AM
Nancy, we are housed in a downtown church and serve a hot,
nutritious midday meal to anyone who comes in our door (as long as
they are civil to each other, our staff and volunteers). We serve
about 300 people a day and that includes the homeless, working
poor, transients, elderly, families etc. On weekends there are
several other churches that feed the poor. Kansas City has two
groups that go out nightly to the camps, bridges and abandoned
building and take hot food (soup or spaghetti type food), clothes,
blankets etc. There also is a medical/mental health team that goes
out to offer services as needed. So our street homeless are pretty
well taken care of. As part of our gaps analysis for the HUD
Continuum of Care grant, we held focus groups and the two things
the homeless participants said were readily available were food
and clothes in KC! |
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| Submitted by
Melanie Jumonville on 04/10/2002 |
posted 1/24/2001 7:38:35 AM:
Linda, I also agree with Jane in that with our specific program in
Philadelphia, we are trying to help people that are on public
assistance or living at poverty level, and that want to find
rewarding, fulltime work but just can't make the leap by
themselves. We have networked with a variety of organizations to
provide us with referrals. This does a couple of things. It gets
the word about about our program, and it also provides a sort of
"prescreen" for us. We contacted the local mental health assoc,
churches, food banks and food cupboards, social service agencies,
recovery houses and our local Dept of Public Welfare just to name
a few. Many of these agencies actually include our program info in
their newsletters that go out to thousands of low-income
individuals. We also send out flyers for these organizations to
post, and we do some on-site informational meetings as well. |
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