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naomikritzerProbably none of the people reading this are currently living in a homeless shelter or in a tent by the Mississippi (although you never know) but there are a lot of different kinds of homelessness.
If you're living with friends because you lost your home; if you're staying in an abusive situation because you have no way to support yourself if you left; if you're a teenager who got kicked out (for being gay, for not getting along with your stepparent, for drinking, because your home was foreclosed on and your aunt didn't have room for all of you...) then you count. If you're not homeless, but you know that could change really easily -- your landlord is in foreclosure and you don't have money to move, or YOU are in foreclosure, or 75% of every paycheck goes to just keeping a roof over your head -- Project Homeless Connect has services that can help you.
Project Homeless Connect is a twice-yearly event (in Hennepin County; it's once a year in Ramsey, IIRC) in which the county tries to bring as many service providers to the Minneapolis Convention Center as possible. There are a TON of services. There are people to help you get a state ID, if you don't have one; to help you fill out forms for food stamps, General Assistance, Medical Assistance, etc.; to connect you to a wide range of subsidized housing; to help you find employment training or make a resume. There are legal services, medical services (they basically set up an onsite urgent-care clinic), dental services, and optometrists. (I'll note that the optometrist and dental appointments go really fast. If that's what you're coming for, come early and go there first.) There are free haircuts. There's a free breakfast at the church next door, if you arrive early, and a hot lunch is served to all guests at mid-day. There's a special area for "unaccompanied youth" (i.e., teenagers). There are bilingual volunteers and interpreters for nearly every language spoken in the Cities. (Last time, apparently, someone arrived needing a Polish interpreter. The coordinators made an announcement over the PA system asking for a Polish speaking volunteer who could interpret, and got three.)
Anyway, it's tomorrow, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It officially runs from 10:30 to 5, but my experience last time suggests that the doors tend to open a little early, and a lot of service providers have packed up by 4.
You do NOT have to live in Hennepin County to come. Several of the people I worked with last year lived in St. Paul.
You do not have to be sober to come, incidentally. You don't have to be "deserving" ("deserving," in this context, is someone who did everything right and wound up homeless anyway. People who are homeless because they have made one or more bad decisions in the past are welcome to come to the event.) You don't have to be sleeping on the street or living at a shelter.
If you need help in the Twin Cities metro, come. (And if this isn't of use to you, but you have a friend it would be useful to, by all means pass it along.)
If you're living with friends because you lost your home; if you're staying in an abusive situation because you have no way to support yourself if you left; if you're a teenager who got kicked out (for being gay, for not getting along with your stepparent, for drinking, because your home was foreclosed on and your aunt didn't have room for all of you...) then you count. If you're not homeless, but you know that could change really easily -- your landlord is in foreclosure and you don't have money to move, or YOU are in foreclosure, or 75% of every paycheck goes to just keeping a roof over your head -- Project Homeless Connect has services that can help you.
Project Homeless Connect is a twice-yearly event (in Hennepin County; it's once a year in Ramsey, IIRC) in which the county tries to bring as many service providers to the Minneapolis Convention Center as possible. There are a TON of services. There are people to help you get a state ID, if you don't have one; to help you fill out forms for food stamps, General Assistance, Medical Assistance, etc.; to connect you to a wide range of subsidized housing; to help you find employment training or make a resume. There are legal services, medical services (they basically set up an onsite urgent-care clinic), dental services, and optometrists. (I'll note that the optometrist and dental appointments go really fast. If that's what you're coming for, come early and go there first.) There are free haircuts. There's a free breakfast at the church next door, if you arrive early, and a hot lunch is served to all guests at mid-day. There's a special area for "unaccompanied youth" (i.e., teenagers). There are bilingual volunteers and interpreters for nearly every language spoken in the Cities. (Last time, apparently, someone arrived needing a Polish interpreter. The coordinators made an announcement over the PA system asking for a Polish speaking volunteer who could interpret, and got three.)
Anyway, it's tomorrow, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It officially runs from 10:30 to 5, but my experience last time suggests that the doors tend to open a little early, and a lot of service providers have packed up by 4.
You do NOT have to live in Hennepin County to come. Several of the people I worked with last year lived in St. Paul.
You do not have to be sober to come, incidentally. You don't have to be "deserving" ("deserving," in this context, is someone who did everything right and wound up homeless anyway. People who are homeless because they have made one or more bad decisions in the past are welcome to come to the event.) You don't have to be sleeping on the street or living at a shelter.
If you need help in the Twin Cities metro, come. (And if this isn't of use to you, but you have a friend it would be useful to, by all means pass it along.)
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 11:45 pm (UTC)