More on homelessness

[sally greene]

Dear friends,

In response to my last message, Chris Moran of the IFC would like to add the following:

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"Thank you for including the IFC in your email for holiday gifts. So everyone on your list-serve is aware, know that /The Stewards Fund/ has offered a $25,000 all or nothing challenge grant to the IFC to see if we can successfully attract new donors or larger donor gifts to restore 24/7 Community House services beginning in January. We are confident that this can be done and sustained in future years. I have attached some information for your list serve to consider and share. [See attachments.] We have raised approximately $17,000 of the challenge thus far and need to complete the 24/7 campaign by year's end.

"IFC efforts to restore 24/7 services has so many implications now and for our eventual move of the men's facility to a new location. Improving 24/7 staffing will help our residents with more structured programs, volunteer recruitment/management, guest referrals/affairs and general support (laundry, showers, mail, job readiness, clinics, agency contacts etc.). Spreading the word on this will help residents, the IFC and the entire community to achieve it's goal for making a better infrastructure  for homeless residents and street persons who need to come inside.

"Happy holidays and thanks."

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Relatedly, as you know, Orange County's Project Homeless Connect was held in late October. It was a great success. At Wednesday night's meeting of the executive team for the 10-year plan, Jamie Rohe shared a summary of the results. Here's a brief excerpt:

"The first annual Project Homeless Connect in Orange County was held on October 25, 2007 at the Hargraves Community Center. The event served 133 individuals who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness. Event coordinators planned for 150 guests. Over 220 volunteers and 40 service providers joined together to make this a hugely successful event. At least 40 donors supported the event, including businesses, individuals, schools, churches, and other community organizations.

"The budget for the event was about $6,000 including grants and donations from two churches, Triangle United Way, and the NC Interagency Council for Coordinating Homeless Programs. This amount does not include staff time donated to plan the event from the Town of Chapel Hill, Inter-Faith Council for Social Services, and OPC Mental Health."

For more detailed numbers of persons served and how, etc., see attached file. One of the most exciting outcomes was that service providers are interested in making themselves available to the homeless on a more regular basis than once a year, and the staff that pulled this event off (thanks again, Jamie!) are very interested in taking it further. These ideas are very much aligned with the IFC's plans to expand its range of services.Good things are happening all around.

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Finally, perhaps some of you saw the column by Andew Dobelstein in Wednesday's Chapel Hill News:

http://www.chapelhillnews.com/opinion/guest_columns/story/11302.html

Mr. Dobelstein is a retired UNC professor of social work. I'm grateful for his interest in our work on homelessness. However, I was sorry to see that he didn't realize how closely the Partnership to End Homelessness, the IFC, and the Downtown Partnership are already working together on various initiatives all aimed to help those in need. The following is a letter to the editor that I submitted yesterday for publication.

"To the editor:

"As chair of the executive team for the Orange County Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, I appreciate Andrew Dobelstein's guest column of Dec. 5. He correctly notes that making a meaningful difference in the lives of our homeless neighbors will take more than the "spare change" garnered from the Downtown Partnership's Real Change from Spare Change program.

"Contrary to his understanding, however, the Real Change from Spare Change program is very much embraced by the Orange County Partnership to End Homeless. We were among the first groups to formally endorse it. I myself serve on the Downtown Partnership's work group that conceived of the program. So does Chris Moran, executive director of the Inter-Faith Council. The IFC has also formally endorsed the program and in fact provides in-kind support for the outreach workers whose continuing efforts will be subsidized by the money it collects.

"With the launch of the 10-year plan, Orange County is undertaking a new, comprehensive set of strategies to help those who are homeless and at risk of homelessness in our community. The goals of expanded services identified by the IFC as it pursues a new home for the men's shelter are completely aligned with those of the plan. So is the Real Change from Spare Change program.

"From social service providers I've learned a new term: 'silo mentality.' Those who work in the chronically underfunded organizations that serve our neediest populations are all too aware of the tendency to get in the habit of seeing no farther than their own spare walls. A key goal of the Partnership to End Homelessness is to break down those barriers, to foster coordination of resources and information so that the homeless among us are served more effectively. We welcome everyone's help."

You can give directly to the Real Change from Spare Change program from via its web site,

http://www.realchangefromsparechange.org/

or through the Downtown Partnership,

http://www.downtownchapelhill.com/

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As we move into the holiday season, thank you for joining me in thinking about how our community can best go about serving the homeless among us. Do what you can to reach out and help.

Happy holidays to you and yours,

Sally
http://sallygreene.org
http://greenespace.blogspot.com