Outreach Risk Factors

Street Outreach is usually not how people tend to imagine it. Street outreach teams are out on the streets at night all throughout the year. When people think about being on the streets at night, many often worry about our safety. We are also concerned about team safety, but tend to assess the various risks differently. Unlike some of the images people have of the streets at night, our HOPES Center’s outreach teams have never been threatened by anyone we have met or served during outreach over the years (so far so good). Our number one threat is a natural one: Ice.

Although we have not been threatened or victims of crime during outreach, many of us have slipped and fallen on ice at least once during outreach in the winter. This often occurs after a snow, when plowed or shoveled snow melts in the sun during the day and then freezes on parking lots and sidewalks at night. It can be worse if it is concealed by a dusting of snow. We have gotten better though, and frequently remind each other to watch out for the ice as we are out and about.

The winter of 2020-2021 is still just starting, but the ice is there. So far our progress is reminiscent of an African proverb: Slipping is not falling. We hope to keep it that way all the way through to spring.!