This is a moto that we use throughout our organization, but in outreach this is our core philosophy. Our outreach team consists of Youth Advocates who go out into our community to meet with potential clients. Sometimes that means going into the homeless camps by the river and knocking on tents and sometimes that might mean going into schools to provide information and prevent our transition age youth from ever spending a night on the streets.
Our mission is to create relationships, and trust with potential clients and to be relentless in our engagement with them. The first time we meet a client they might not want to come with us but if we continue to follow up and show them that there is someone who cares about them, and a safe place that they can come to, only then can we make a difference.
– Pictures by Richie Bednarski
Today during outreach at motels, we had a wonderful surprise. One of our clients who has been accessing our drop-in center since 2016 greeted us at the door of her work. She had come in a few months back and got a few services including a job lead. Recently she was just promoted to manager and is doing very well in her new position. Her boss could not sing her praises enough. She is now living independently in her own apartment.
Today our outreach team went to take a client to the Well Care Foundation Community Triage Center (CTC) to detox. When we arrived to pick the client up at 11am, he was still asleep. He told us he had a late night and not very good sleep. He said he didn’t want to go and wanted to put it off for another day. Our team listened to his concerns and shared how this could positively impact his life. Eventually, he decided that he did want to take this step and go to CTC. If we had not gone in person to pick him up, we believe he would have never gone. Upon arrival one of our team members checked him in with a nurse and assisted him with all his paperwork.