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Thursday, September 2, 2010
3rd Annual Homeless Connect
by Syd Fong, published on May 24, 2010 at 12:47PM
Storyline: Salvation Army
Montrail Carr is a 29-year-old father of seven children. He and his family have been homeless for the last 13 months.
"I'm looking for housing or any kind of help," said Carr. "I have never been homeless before, so I need assistance for my family."
Carr's hope for help came one step closer recently. He was one of more than 700 homeless individuals who attended the third annual Homeless Connect on May 22 at Sacramento City College. The one day event provided direct services to the homeless in an “one stop shop” format.
With the partnership of more than 50 organizations and the aid of 500 community volunteers, Sacramento Steps Forward’s Sacramento Homeless Connect provided homeless individuals and families with access to residential assistance, health screenings, vision appointments, dental screenings, mental health services, Social Security Administration assistance, HIV tests, skin cancer screenings, California identification cards, and access to benefits, shelter, haircuts, bike and wheelchair repair and much more.
"I'm so thankful that there are so many who care about us," Carr said. "They really want us to change and get help."
The Salvation Army was the presenting sponsor of Homeless Connect, providing food and gift bags to all of the event guests.
"It's a honor and a blessing for The Salvation Army to be involved with the Homeless Connect again," said David Bentley, Salvation Army Sacramento County Coordinator. "We hope that the attendees can take advantage of all of the resources here, and hopefully, we can bring hope to them, too."
Since January 2007, chronic homelessness in Sacramento County has decreased by 35% but overall homelessness continues to rise.
"The goal of ending homelessness is an important and profound mission that requires the ideas, insights and efforts of all individuals, organizations, businesses and agencies," said Tim Brown, Director of Sacramento Steps Forward. "Sacramento Steps Forward,through its Homeless Connect project is an initiative to rally the community towards a shared and collective effort to end homelessness.”
Last year, over 700 homeless guests, 300 staff and 400 volunteers, participated in making Sacramento Homeless Connect a great success.
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P W
May 25, 2010 | 11:17 AM
My wife and I were honored to have been able to volunteer at this event this past weekend. What an amazing time! We met with several of the clients...all who were very noble, elegant people. I came away realizing that for too long, I've been too distant from people who are less fortunate than me. It's fine to give money to charitable organizations...but until you've given your time, you really can't fully appreciate what these organizations do on a daily basis. Kudos to ALL of the sponsors, service providers and especially the homeless people, who taught me that dignity, humility and grace are really inseparable.
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wilsonmk10
May 25, 2010 | 05:13 PM
In our organization, we call them "unsheltered" because that distills it down to the factual differences between "us" and "them" - we are sheltered, they are not.
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P W
May 25, 2010 | 08:09 PM
Interesting...but it sounds a little too "generic"? Home has SO many connotations...being HOME-LESS is a lot tougher (emotionally) to say than "unsheltered". But that's just me...but I also get your point...takes it to that basic need we all have...of shelter...food...love. Interesting!
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