Celebrate The Season Of Service With VSH!

Posted on September 13, 2011

The HandsOn Network and the Points of Light Institute commonly refer to this time of year as the Season of Service. It begins with 9/11 Service Day, a day on which communities have the opportunity to come together to repair the damage caused by the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and ends with the holiday season, a time when we are privileged to share the blessings of family, friends, food, and material bounty with our less fortunate neighbors.

VSH kicked off this season with a fantastic 9/11 Service Day project that inspired thirty-four amazing community volunteers to roll up their sleeves on a beautiful Sunday morning for a day of painting at a VSH property that provides permanent housing and support services for 60 formerly homeless individuals, eleven of whom are military veterans.
In three short hours, these terrific volunteers transformed two large public spaces for the building’s tenants, some of whom have called South Richmond home for more than a decade.

But the gift of their time meant so much more than a couple of coats of fresh paint! For these volunteers, it was also about demonstrating the power of service to impact lives and transform entire communities. Service with VSH means many things, but the ultimate goal is always to reconnect our formerly homeless clients to a caring community and remind them that they are not alone in their struggles to recover and restabilize.

At VSH, the Season of Service has gotten off to a wonderful start….but it’s only just the beginning! Weekly opportunities are available throughout the coming four months and beyond for individual and group volunteers who want to make a difference in the community and support our permanent solutions to homelessness. VSH volunteers are always needed to paint, clean, and landscape properties, serve meals, engage in social activities with clients, offer tutoring sessions, lead donation drives, provide administrative support, and much more.

It only takes a few hours to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others, and you can start right now. Take a look at some of our excellent volunteers in action and then check your availability for the upcoming opportunities below: 

Make the gift of your time count this season by supporting Virginia Supportive Housing’s proven permanent solutions to homelessness! To support VSH in Richmond, call 804-836-1061 or send an e-mail to [email protected]. For more information on VSH volunteer opportunities in South Hampton Roads, call 757-394-3077 x 307 or send an e-mail to [email protected].

1,000 Homes Richmond Campaign Houses First Vulnerable Individual!

Posted on September 6, 2011

A 60-year-old veteran now has a home as a result of the 1,000 Homes for 1,000 Virginians – Richmond Campaign!

Bruce Henshaw, who has been homeless and living on the streets of Richmond for three years, moved into a VSH apartment on Thursday 8/25. He is the first person to receive housing as a result of the Richmond campaign.

Henshaw, who has lived in Richmond since the 1960’s, became homeless when he lost his job at a car lot that closed down in 2007. He had difficulty finding a new job because of health problems, and he eventually lost his home. He slept in his trailer for a few months, but had to sell it and began living on the street. “It’s hard to get back up once you start going downhill.”

The 1,000 Homes for 1,000 Virginians campaign is a statewide initiative, led by the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, to identify and house vulnerable homeless individuals who are at increased risk of death without intervention.

Henshaw was identified as vulnerable, due to his age and health status, during the Richmond campaign’s Registry Week, held August 1 – 3. Eleven teams comprising more than 100 community partners and volunteers canvassed the streets of the city to compile a detailed registry of the homeless, including medical and other information. VSH, Homeward, and other community partners are using this data to identify the most vulnerable members of the region’s homeless population and to prioritize them for permanent housing.

Two hundred and eighteen homeless individuals in the Greater Richmond region were surveyed and 118 of that number, or 54.1%, are considered vulnerable. Thirty-one of those identified as vulnerable are veterans.

Henshaw said it is hard being homeless and that his new apartment “will change a lot” in his life. “It will make me feel better about myself and I don’t have to worry about night time…I don’t have to worry about getting mugged, beaten up, or killed.”

VSH is committed to housing 45 vulnerable individuals identified through the campaign. The residents will pay a portion of their income as rent, and they will have a variety of supportive services available to them in their new homes. Volunteers and supporters are needed to assist with move-ins and other activities. To find out how you can support VSH’s proven permanent solution to homelessness, click here.

A Volunteer Reflects On Richmond Registry Week

Posted on August 16, 2011

This blog was written by VSH’s summer PR intern, James Denison

At one point during Richmond Registry Week, I was walking down Chamberlayne Road with a flashlight and a clipboard at the ungodly hour of 4:30 in the morning. Actually, that phrase “ungodly hour” seems ironic to me. It’s as if nothing good happens at that time, as if the only people out and about then are drug dealers, or gang members, or witches. But my team and I were out trying to locate homeless individuals before the sun rose, because they tend to be on the move early too.

We were out as part of the 1000 Homes for 1000 Virginians campaign, seeking to identify the most vulnerable homeless folks in Richmond, and looking for individuals sleeping on the ground or under bridges was a pretty good place to start. So the first thing I learned this week was how early homeless people have to get up. By 6:30 at the latest, they are generally awake and starting their days.

You’d think that folks would be grumpy or hostile about being woken up by a pack of strangers shining lights and asking questions, right? Well, a couple of people did want to go back to sleep. But for the most part, the individuals we met were perfectly willing to complete the vulnerability surveys, which took about 15 minutes. And to thank them for their cooperation, we made sure they knew where their next meal was coming from by giving out McDonald’s gift cards.

All in all, we surveyed more than 150 folks in three mornings, and about half of them fit the criteria for vulnerability, which was based on a combination of age, repeated homelessness, and chronic physical and mental health problems. Personally, I got to interview one man (I’ll call him Jerry) who was living under a bridge and had previously been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. This means that at one time, he must have done something destructive enough to be classified as an imminent danger to himself or to others.

Previously, I wrote a blog about how overcrowded conditions in mental health facilities had led to hundreds of patients being turned away, which led to many of them becoming homeless. At the time, I thought I understood the issue; I thought I cared about getting these individuals off the streets. And I did. But as I watched Jerry mumble to himself and tell me about spirits and spells, the weight of his situation and the necessity of getting him into supportive housing was made real for me.

As a society, we simply cannot allow individuals like Jerry to be left out on the streets to fend for themselves. Jerry may be mentally ill and homeless, but his life is not worthless. With Richmond Registry Week and many other efforts, VSH is committed to standing alongside folks like Jerry in their hard times. The dream is that one day, Jerry and people like him will be able to spend their ungodly hours in the security of their own homes.

You can help make that dream a reality. To find out how, click here.

The Face of Homelessness In Our City

Posted on August 10, 2011

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our Richmond Registry Week staff and volunteers, one hundred ninety-six two hundred eighteen homeless individuals in the Richmond area were located and surveyed last week, more than half (118 or 54%) of whom qualified as medically vulnerable and at increased risk of death.
 
Who are they? 31 are veterans. 6 are over 70 years of age. 17 suffer from kidney disease. 64 report being the victim of a violent attack since becoming homeless. They have spent an average of 3.2 years on the street, living under bridges and in wooded areas along the river.
Each of them has a name and a face and a story. They are our neighbors and friends, maybe even our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers and even our grandparents. And now that we know who they are, it is up to us to give them the housing & support they need.  
 We accomplished a lot last week, but there is still much to be done. If you want to be a part of the solution to the problem of homelessness in our community, just click here or send an e-mail to [email protected].  

Day 2 of Surveying [in Philly] and Two Words: Blown Away

Posted on May 18, 2011

This past weekend staff from Virginia Supportive Housing and Homeward took part in the 100,000 Homes Registry Week Boot Camp in Philadelphia. On Saturday and Sunday staff learned how to implement to 100,000 Homes Model  in Richmond. Part of that model is a Registry Week where the community administers health surveys to people experiencing homelessness. Volunteers, including Boot Camp attendees, went out at 4am three days in a row to canvas the streets of Philly to find and survey homeless individuals and families. It was an amazing experience. The blog below is after the second day of Registry Week. Please stay tuned for more information on Richmond’s Registry Week (August 1 through 5th) and how to get involved.

This is a guest post by the 100K Homes Philly Campaign. This blog post was originally posted on 100K Homes Philly blog. Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 07:50PM

It was cold, rainy and just messy on our streets this morning, which means most people want to stay in their nice warm safe beds as long as possible. Thankfully, the 100KHomes Philly teams rose at 2 and 3 am to hit the streets of Philly and see who among us did not have a warm and safe place to be. 

Teams were deployed to Horizon House’s Navigation Center, where over 50 people slept on a floor in Mantua to stay out of the rain. We attempted to survey everyone and most agreed. Teams went again to the SEPTA [subway] concourse and now most folks knew we were coming and organized themselves into a line to do the survey. Teams that had walked the streets and found no one had learned to check under the bridges and I-95 and found 4, 5 or 6 people today where yesterday, they had seen none.   The same teams want to go back again tomorrow, because they are learning, you just have to keep looking. People are there.

Perhaps most exciting, the NEAT team (also known as Team 3) engaged a person on Monday, who had every vulnerability criteria that the folks from 100K Homes national taught us about on Sunday.  Long time on the streets, alcoholism, serious mental illness and chronic health conditions, over 60 years of age, long physical health hospital admissions and ER visits. We had to act.  So the NEAT team went and engaged him again today with his case manager of 10+ years  from PATH and staff from Pathways to Housing PA, who have housing PLUS services to offer him.  We hope we can have him housed by Friday and will keep you posted. 

KYW stopped by and did some interviews at 315 S Broad St and went out with a team. Check out their interview at http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/05/17/volunteers-conduct-census-of-homeless-in-philadelphia/

This job would be impossible without the dedication and skill of our volunteers. Please don’t lose steam now; we’ve got one more big day and dozens of more people to reach! To date, we have 377 unduplicated interviews. Even for teams that haven’t completed lots of interviews, you are giving us a better idea of where homeless people stay (and where they don’t), which is absolutely invaluable information that will have service and policy implications. Kudos to all who are supporting us.

A warm loving shout out to Project Home and Bethesda Project, that had their opening for Connelly House today.  79 formerly homeless men and women now have a warm, safe place and a community downtown, thanks to the efforts of these two tireless agencies.

Stay dry, stay safe, stay warm, till you come join us again tomorrow.  And even when this event ends, we are not done.  Stay connected to the site for updates on events or how you can support the efforts. Follow us on Twitter at @100KhomesPhilly or like our Facebook page at 100K Homes Philly.

See you tomorrow. It’s supposed to be wet, so be prepared.

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