This is the start of my second year of service at Midland Area Homes and this month I assisted in the organization of Midland County’s Project Homeless Connect that occurred on November 17th. This was my second Project Homeless Connect that I have been involved with and really enjoyed it. This community wide event allows different agencies and organizations that assist with those at risk of losing their housing to gather in one building and help those in need. We were able to help 179 households this year which is an increase of 59 households over last year.
I was responsible for the registration room this year and was able to add a scavenger hunt to it. This helped people to see what all is available at the event and helped us track the services that were used. Tracking services will allow us to see what we need to focus on in the future and make sure that those services continue to be provided in the future. Star stickers were given to all the agencies there to encourage everyone to complete the scavenger hunt. If people got five stickers, they were able to go into the giveaway room where they were able to get a variety of stuff including winter coats, laundry detergent, personal hygiene packs, hats and gloves.
It was excited to see an increase in participation from the people that came to this year’s Project Homeless Connect. We had more people coming to different booths and inquiring about a variety of services. New this year was Hidden Harvest distributing boxes of food to the families that attended as well as a local church registering families for a Thanksgiving Dinner. This was a great opportunity to see different agencies in the community get together to serve our county and I can’t wait until the next one.
Greetings Amanda! This sounds like both a wonderful event and and excellent service opportunity. I am quite impressed with the increase the number of households served between this year and last. A 50% increase is quite substantial, and begs the question,to what do you, your service site, and your CoC attribute this increase? Was it marketing, word of mouth, greater need in the community, something else, or some combination?
ReplyDeleteIf marketing what what did you do that others could try? If greater need, need in what areas?
I would definitely be interested to hear and perhaps learn from your Project Homeless Connect experience!