Caring Community
Photo from the Racine County Eye: April 28, 2016: Ask me why I love Racine
Ask me why I love Racine - The People
There are so many ways that the Racine community supports our ministry to people experiencing homelessness, especially to those who are unsheltered and living on the streets. We receive many generous donations, both financial and in-kind. We collaborate with great organizations like HALO, Racine Vocational Ministry, the Hospitality Center, Lutheran Social Services, Center for Veterans Issues, Women’s Resource Center, SAFE Haven of Racine, and more. We also have interactions with compassionate community members who are concerned about people they have seen on the streets who might be homeless.
We have a contact form on our website where people can send a message to us. The message could be about anything. Sometimes people want to donate. Sometimes people want to learn more about what we do. Sometimes we get unsolicited offers of service for hire or products for purchase. We were surprised, however, to have people start using it to report where they have seen someone they think might be homeless and need assistance.
Some recent leads coming through our website have helped the street outreach team make contact with people who were unsheltered on the north side of town. These came from people who said they had seen a person they thought might be homeless. They provided descriptions of the people and where they had seen them. This was enough for the street outreach to locate and engage with those people. In one case, it was someone we already knew but hadn’t seen in a while. In another case it was someone we had never met before. Neither wanted to go to shelter, but each of them accepted some help in looking at housing options and we will continue engaging with them. Going from the streets to housing usually takes longer to get off the streets than going to shelter, but can still ultimately end their homelessness.
We are very thankful to caring members of our community who have given us tips that helped us make contacts like these and start the process of helping someone out of homelessness. It is one of the reasons we love Racine!