People Doing Good Things
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Homeless Advocate Miss Florida Competes for Miss America Crown
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Why You Should Skip the Office Swap and Support the Homeless This Year
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Calling All Winter Coats!
The Volunteer You Turned Away
Published January 18, 2010 @ 08:30AM PT
I honestly believe that today more than ever, people genuinely want to get involved in the fight to end homelessness. After CNN profiled me and my work, I received lots of e-mails from people wanting to help. As always, I suggested they support their local homeless services. I also gave the disclaimer that it may be challenging trying to connect and encouraged people not to give up before finding an organization that "fits."
Those of us who work on ending homelessness suck at getting people involved. Please forgive my candor but I don't know how else to put it. Yeah, I know you're busy. And who has money to hire a volunteer coordinator? In homeless services everything that can go wrong usually does; when a group of people show up to help they are sent to the kitchen just to get them out of the way. Sometimes volunteers stand around doing nothing. It's a horrible experience so they never return to help you or any other homeless services organization.
The other thing we do is make them jump through so many hoops just to get involved that they give up. As we enter into another year of a crappy economy we need volunteers more than ever. They save money and most even end up becoming financial donors as well.
Meet the volunteer you turned away:
Susan left a note on my Facebook page. I don't remember her exact words except she stated that after reading about me on CNN she knew had to do something. I gave my usual response encouraging her to find a local shelter that fits. Susan really wanted to take action and started to apply as a volunteer in her area. She tried several places and each one made it nearly impossible for her to connect. She asked for my help so I recommended a few homeless services in or near where she lived. Unfortunately, I only know these
organizations by their outward appearance. They, too, made it difficult and Susan was basically turned away every place she tried to help.
Susan decided to take action and started to research what people on the streets need. She even sent me links to information that I didn't know. She planned on filling up her car and driving to a park to help.
Here is just one of the emails she sent:
My neighbor just gave me ten ski suits. Those things are unbelievably expensive and talk about durable, weatherproof and warm! I have hats, scarves, gloves, tons of thermals, sweats, jeans, socks, and someone gave me an inflatable bed with electric pump. Should I approach the people who are doing the feeding and give them the bed? My entire car is loaded right now. Are we able to park close to that park or do we have to park in the garage and just lug things back and forth? I have two rolling suitcases. Figured we will fill them up and go.
I then received this one from her BlackBerry:
You are not going to believe this. We didn't have enough. Corner of K and 15th. They came out of the woodwork. Down the road a little on 16th was a crowd of them too. It is cold and raining and miserable out. Food, clothes, jackets, all of our bags -- just everything gone. My entire car was packed. Completely empty now. Unbelievable.
Crooner Jimmy Wayne Walks For Homeless Teens
Published January 12, 2010 @ 07:31PM PT
Country singer Jimmy Wayne's boots were certainly made for walking -- to raise awareness about homeless youth. On January 1, Wayne set out for the 1,660-mile solo journey from Nashville to Phoenix he's calling the "Meet Me Halfway" campaign. Walking about 25 miles a day, with just a 50-lb. backpack including a tent and a sleeping bag, he expects to wind up in Phoenix in about two months. The 37-year-old North Carolina-native was homeless as a teenager before a couple in their 70s gave him a home.
"This country shouldn't have a homeless problem," Wayne told the Jackson Sun in Tennessee. "I encourage people to find facilities that help these kids out, because they don't have anywhere to go." Wayne isn't collecting donations, just raising awareness for the cause and some organizations he supports. He started walking from Monroe Harding, an organization for homeless youth in Nashville and he'll finish at HomeBase Youth Services in Phoenix.
Last year Wayne was on tour with country star Brad Paisley; this year he decided to give something back. "I was at home standing in my housecoat, making coffee, when the idea came to me. 'I'll just walk across the United States to raise awareness for teens who age out of the system and become homeless.' I was one of those teens, but a real good family took me in. Helping homeless teens is where my heart has always been."
He has relied on the kindness of strangers on the road -- people bringing him coffee from their diners, letting him charge his cell phone in their cars and offering a spare room for the night, something he said reminds him of "being 14."
Follow along on the "Meet Me Halfway" site and Jimmy Wayne's Twitter account.
Photo credit: TweetPhoto
Feeding Frenzies and Pecking Orders at the Bottom
Published January 08, 2010 @ 11:02AM PT
On Christmas morning, a man showed up in a place where homeless people usually gather so he could hand out $20 bills. He said he used to be out there, but is doing better now and wanted to share. He just didn't expect to share with so many. So he gathered people into groups of four, asked who was the "most responsible and trustworthy" and gave that person the cash with instructions to get change and distribute it evenly. He clearly was street-savvy enough to know how to organize and handle all the people that rushed him. But he did set off any number of small skirmishes among those less able, or less willing, to handle such things.
Over the next several hours, group after group of the goodwilled and generous arrived to hand out clothing, gear and food. And each time, quite a number of people would rush to gather around, excited. Of course the most aggressive and intent are the fastest and first, even muscling others out of the way for position. All too often, people grabbed more than their fair share or hid something behind their backs and then pleaded for another from someone who didn't see their first "score."
Kanye West Feeds the Homeless, Blogs About It
Published January 05, 2010 @ 03:18PM PT
Question: If a celebrity does something nice for humanity and doesn't distribute photographic proof to the press, did it really happen?
Answer: We don't know, because it has never happened!
Kidding, kind of. Kudos to Kanye West for volunteering at the LA Mission with his cousin and his girlfriend. There are photos, of course, on his blog.
Hardly the systemic change that's needed, but raising awareness is often the most valuable thing a celebrity can do. And the homeless need all the attention that Kanye can get.
5 Reasons to Feel Hopeful in 2010
Published January 02, 2010 @ 09:27PM PT
Homelessness reached crisis proportions in 2009. But there's reason to feel hopeful that things will take a turn for the better in 2010. Here are the top five reasons why:
5. Ending veteran homelessness
While many have called the VA's commitment to ending veteran homelessness in five years "bold," we say it's about time. The year 2010 will see changes in services available to veterans in an effort to prevent homelessness, including leveraging existing education and jobs programs, boosting the ability of veteran-owned businesses to compete for federal contracts, and spending an additional $3 billion on medical services and homeless programs. And the best part? Eighty-five percent of the additional funds for homeless veteran programs is being directed towards medical costs; thus finally acknowledging that untreated mental health issues and substance abuse are often the drivers of veteran homelessness. Read more here.
4. From crisis emerges opportunity for change
In 2009, $1.5 billion dollars of Recovery Act funding was directed to help homeless Americans. But rather than being directed towards band-aid solutions, such as opening more shelters, the money was used to fund proven solutions to homelessness, such as prevention and permanent housing solutions. This provided heavy financial backing for a much-needed paradigm shift in the way homelessness programs will operate in the future. Perhaps 2010 will see the "revolving door" replaced with a front door. Read more here.
Knitting Group Knocks Down Stereotypes
Published December 28, 2009 @ 07:19AM PT
A recent story in the Boston Globe intended to be a saccharine human interest gloss on homelessness might actually, and quite indirectly, do something more than warm hearts. Reporter Milton Valencia covered the experiences of the homeless members of a knitting group at a medical respite shelter in South Boston. It's a nice story, complete with sweet quotes from down-and-out mothers who've found a kind of "therapeutic community" in this unexpected fellowship.
But forget the sentimentality for the moment. What's absolutely wonderful about this story isn't so much the human interest and pathos, though I certainly hope the emotional story turned the heads of those otherwise indifferent to the homeless. What's great about this piece is its prominent, full-color picture of a homeless, black man knitting together with an elderly, white woman. I don't know about you, but I find the juxtaposition of multiple broken stereotypes in the image to be startling and not a little bit refreshing. You'll excuse me if I'm making a mountain of the proverbial mole hole, but this small gesture to the unexpected does heaps to fight stigma against the homeless. Kudos to the Globe for the perhaps unintentional boon to homeless advocacy in the Boston area.
But let's not forget about the group itself. Secondary to the picture, this really is a story worth considering for all those knitters and crafters anxious to get involved in their community. From the Globe, "At the Barbara McInnis House in the South End, where people dealing with homelessness also suffer the pains of medical illnesses, a surprising sort of therapy has brought them together with volunteers in what has become a curative social group. Young and old, men and women, a grandmother and a young pregnant woman all use arts and crafts to ease their minds of struggles ranging from disabilities to kidney disease to drug addiction." Not many shelters out there have the capacity to care for both the body and the heart.
And that's a shame. There should be more shelters like the Barbara McInnis House. Respite medical care for the homeless is a deplorable service gap in most communities. Scraping together enough resources for the creation and maintenance of a strong shelter system is hard enough. For many areas, providing staffed medical care for those who remain sick and without shelter during the day-- it's impossible. When the average chronically homeless individual dies more than 20 years earlier than the general population, that's criminal public neglect.
Yet another reason why we should keep our eyes trained on the current wrangling over health care reform on the hill.
Church Sells Window to Keep Shelter Doors Open
Published December 23, 2009 @ 08:30PM PT
A small church in Brattleboro, Vermont is learning the hard way that desperate times call for desperate measures. With fledgling funds, the congregation faced a difficult decision: cut off services to the homeless, or sell an invaluable piece of church history?
ABC News reported last night that members of the church have chosen to part with a valuable Tiffany's stained glass window that has been displayed in the church for over 100 years. They believe selling the artwork will raise $75,000, all of which will support keeping the doors to the church's shelter to open to the area's homeless population.
The need for their community homeless shelter is greater than ever; in the past year, the number of families and individuals at the shelter have more than quadrupled, according to church officials. Though the money is supporting an important cause, it does not make parting with such an important piece of church history any easier.
In many ways, the church's difficult decision is not unlike the those faced by families and individuals who exhaust every possible option before ending up on the streets. It's heartbreaking and it's wrong and no person - or church - should ever have to experience it.
This story is enormously frustrating. Why must a small Vermont church struggle to hold its community's safety net together -- even selling its most valuable possession -- while there seem to be endless streams of money for Wall Street execs? If there is any ray of light in this story, it is the good, decent people who made the difficult decision to sell the church's window. Their selfless actions valued people over possessions; something we can all gain a lesson or two from.
Still - $75,000 won't sustain an emergency shelter forever. And this isn't the only shelter operating on a shoestring budget. When we ring in the new year, let us also renew our commitment to eliminating the need for safety nets by supporting policies that tackle the root causes of homelessness.
Image: Vermont Public Radio
