Project Homeless Connect December 10th

Coming up December 10th, 2009 Across The Nation

What is Project Homeless Connect? It is an event created by the National Council on Homelessness – and sponsored by cities across the united states on December 10th.  The goal is to bring services and homeless individuals together in one place on one day, to get them connected to services they need conveniently.  However, we have experienced that the cities often don’t provide enough funds, workers or other resources to make the outcome of the event as positive as we think it could be in connecting homeless individuals to the services they are seeking. In fact, we learned that this year, despite a RECORD number of homeless and financially challenged individuals, the budget is LESS than in previous years.

What are we going to do about it? Provide Volunteers from serveLA to help make the day a success and work towards creating meaningful conversations with the attendees of the event.

There are a number of locations in Los Angeles where we will have volunteers participating – namely Downtown Los Angeles at Skid Row and at the Glendale Armory in Glendale.

Watch the Video from Project Homeless Connect Los Angeles 2009

The Details below are specific to the Glendale Armory event

Glendale Armory – Thursday December 10th from 8:30am-2:30pm. We are asking you to consider attending even if you have a regular job – that you might ask your human resources manager about donating the day so that you can serve the community.

Areas we need help:

1.) Sock Drive – Bring NEW sports socks to the serveLA table at the Mosaic Pasadena 9:30am service weekly so we can use them for our outreach efforts or call 760-622-0838 to organize a pickup of your donation.

2.)  Outreach- the socks will be labeled with information about Homeless connect day and taken by our volunteers to homeless individuals in Glendale and burbank to help promote the day, and get them to attend the event. We need volunteers for outreach. We will help you coordinate WHERE to go promote the event and how to do so.  Some dates we will need volunteers – Thanksgiving Day, ongoing dinners and donation sites provided by local organizations in the area, we will connect you.
Email: Benjamin Wiles

3.) Soliciting Donations (food) for the day of the event – solicitations made prior to the event
Last year, the city provided lunches for 200 people. this year, they aren’t able to do so. So, we have taken over this role. We have letters from the city which officially allow us to go to businesses and solicit donations of food. We need willing individuals to assist with the efforts AND pick up the donations. Email: Ali Reynolds

4.) Coordinating with other organizations and churches to provide volunteers and assist with outreach prior to the event – WE NEED A LEADER FOR THIS AREA
There are a number of organizations and churches in Glendale that regularly provide meals for the homeless community. We need someone to assist with coordinating with them to find out when their upcoming events are, so we can promote Project Connect to their attendees at those events in the next 4 weeks.  Email Ali Reynolds if you would like to lead this effort.

5.) Cooking & Serving Lunch The day of the Event
We are seeking volunteers to help cook and serve food the day of the event to our homeless “clients” and to the volunteers. This will likely be around 300 lunches. In addition to actually cooking, you will need to provide all cooking utensils, pans, fire (BBQ etc) and help us plan the meal you would like to cook – so we can make sure to get you the right food donations!

6.) Hosting on the day of the event
We need volunteers to act as hosts to the event attendees. You assist with setup, registration and walking the attendees through the services and assisting them with any questions they may have throughout the course of their visit. Email Ali Reynolds

In general, we need your help to spread the word to other volunteers, organizations, churches and our homeless community in Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank before the event.  You can have interested volunteers contact Ali Reynolds at 760-622-0838 or Ben Wiles via email and we will follow up with them.
_________________________________________________
The Downtown Los Angeles location does a great job with outreach, but Glendale has been a little more difficult due to the geography of the area, so we need your help. Here are some upcoming outreach opportunities to the homeless where we would like volunteers to take donated Socks and Flyers promote Project Homeless Connect in and around Burbank and Glendale

Every Sunday 1:30pm Food for Body and Soul
138 North Brand, Ste. 303
Glendale, CA 91203 Contact: David J. Earle
Phone: (818) 242-4700

Loaves and Fishes Food Bank – Distribution
Distribution Times M, T, W, F 10am-12pm & 1:15-3:30pm
4322 San Fernando Road in Glendale

Salvation Army Food Bank – Distribution
Monday -Friday 10am-4pm
801 South Central Ave in Glendale

Burbank Temporary Aid Center – Distribution
M-F 9am-12pm and 1:30-5pm
1304 W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank

LINK TO PASADENA Food Kitchens and Donation Centers

11/26/09 9:30am-1:30pm Serving The Homeless with Union Station – Thanksgiving Dinner at Central Park in Pasadena. to learn more, email Ali Reynolds

Newsletter Signup