At the Center

Another busy month, 19 new people.  It is odd to me that our overnight shelter has been incredibly erratic this winter so far.  We might only have 10 signed up in the night or maybe 20 and then 2 or 3 don’t arrive.  It’s never been this unpredictable in winters past, I guess the same is true of the day center lately as well, it’s just odd enough to see.    We had a couple small victories this month.  I was able to help one of our seniors get placed with US Vets.   He is very happy to be going to Prescott and even though he will have a roommate in his new situation, it will not be 3 roommates in the same room. We have also had some success in getting another senior vet to stay at the shelter most nights.  He is currently being tested for dementia which if he does have it, they will get him into a memory care place if not they are trying another placement. Sometimes the “need to be free” prevents an individual from being placed in permanent housing.

The tractor is continuing to work next door clearing the dirt away.  Unfortunately, we had to call PD this week because we had another person think they could set up camp in the empty lot.  It appears to be a stranger according to the shelter users’ reports, I have never contacted the individual.  I just hope they will not leave a mess that we will have to clean up.  The burned shed has been completely cleared out of the items..We have a few items that we are removing for the shelter, mostly those boxes of socks and shelter records.

Education

Thanks to Ryan Bigelow for sending me a link to a training demonstration from a program called The Nonprofit’s Guide to Homelessness.  I found it incredibly helpful, and though I only touched on a few of the available trainings.  I think it is something that will be beneficial to everyone that works with the homeless.  It covers everything that comes up in our shelter, issues we have had and how to handle them better, even some things that I didn’t realize, nor did I ever think about.  Anyway, after the first of the year, I would like to provide my staff with this training.

Holidays at the Center

Everyone took a turn working at the center on Thanksgiving.  We had a woman volunteer to bring us a turkey and homemade cranberry relish, my family donated a ham, and I found a small one in our freezer here, another family donated pies and rolls.  Someone else made a green bean casserole and I made the rest of the sides. We had our “holiday volunteer” from SNAP fitness come in and help set up tables and get everything ready, so we had several volunteers throughout the day. I appreciated that they all recognized that without us, our clients wouldn’t have a holiday.   We will probably do something similar for Christmas. I know of another individual who has already agreed to work on Christmas eve which is very kind.

Rhonda Bishop
Executive Director