A new partnership between a Boulder nonprofit and Longmont will seek to help more people experiencing homelessness get connected with resources for housing, employment and fighting COVID-19.
Tgthr formed the Longmont Targeted Engagement and Referral Effort with Longmont this year, beginning street outreach in April. The effort includes four hours of street outreach in Longmont five days a week. The team works to find homeless individuals and aid them in getting in touch with other local nonprofits that can assist them with basic needs. An element of the team’s work has also been educating people on COVID-19 public safety measures, screening them for the virus and helping them find vaccination clinics.
Garrett Schilling, Tgthr’s street outreach manager, said the partnership builds on the nonprofit’s experience with street outreach, which it has conducted in Boulder to serve both youth and adults.
“We’ve had a lot of success in being able to empathize with individuals as well as build rapport pretty quickly, because the people on our team have seen and gone through a lot of what our clients have seen and gone through as well,” Schilling said.
He added: “The city has been helping us to connect with different (COVID-19) vaccination clinics that are going on or will be going on in the future, as well as getting people connected with coordinated entry — that’s probably the biggest referral that we make for people, educating them on what that looks like, how to go through that process and supporting them.”
Tgthr, formerly Attention Homes, re-branded earlier this year to its new name. The nonprofit operates programs that seek to end youth homelessness. While Schilling said Tgthr “dabbled” in expanding its youth outreach effort to Longmont several years ago, it hasn’t yet had a mainstay in the city, like the street outreach program.
Eliberto Mendoza, Longmont Community Services project coordinator, said the program is funded by an Emergency Solutions Grant that is part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act program. The county applied for the funding through the Department of Local Affairs.
“Something we’re very interested in as a city and community services department is that engagement piece and someone on the ground meeting with folks and interacting with folks,” Mendoza said. “And, encouraging them and working with them to try and either connect or reconnect with our homeless Boulder County services via coordinated entry.”
According to data gathered by Tgthr, the county saw an increase in “unsheltered and unhoused individuals” in 2020. A point in time survey conducted January of last year identified 689 people experiencing homelessness — a 9% increase from 2019. Tgthr leaders also cited a concern that some people experiencing homelessness may not be accessing services in congregate settings, for fear of catching coronavirus.
Since the outreach began, Schilling said the team has been interacting every day with between 15 and 45 people experiencing homelessness. That number includes people that the nonprofit has repeat contact with.
The street outreach team is made of three people: a person who has experienced being homeless in Longmont, a mental health professional, and an outreach coordinator who can help get the person experiencing homelessness connected with resources. The work involves getting to know the people who need help and what their individual goals are, whether it’s reconnecting with family or securing housing or employment. The outreach team also provides them water, food and hygiene products.
While the grant-based program is slated to end in September, Schilling said the nonprofit hopes to find more funding to continue Longmont outreach efforts. Schilling said the Longmont community can help by learning about and supporting local agencies that aid people experiencing homelessness, including Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement, which conducts its own street outreach, and Recovery Cafe Longmont, a nonprofit that helps people struggling with addiction and mental health issues.
“Were super proud of the team,” Schilling said. “We’re grateful the city of Longmont has a strong system of service providers and we can see our services integrated.”
"street" - Google News
June 23, 2021 at 07:45AM
https://ift.tt/3vSs0se
Longmont, Boulder nonprofit partner to help homeless through street outreach - Longmont Times-Call
"street" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Ql4mmJ
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment