HOME hosts annual Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Walk a Mile in My Shoes —
Community Awareness walk to reveal the face of homelessness

Would you know I was homeless? It’s the question Helping Others Make the Effort is asking to those in Osceola County as we work to raise homelessness awareness through a community
awareness walk on Nov. 13, 2010 at 11 a.m.

November is Homelessness Awareness Month and HOME hopes that through the event residents of central Florida can get to know who the homeless really are in their community. Right now, in Osceola County alone, there are over 1000 school-aged children who are homeless. HOME is working to provide safe housing for those children and single mothers through case management, life skills, and transitional living.

Walk a Mile in my Shoes will be held at the Saint Cloud Lakefront, in downtown Saint Cloud, Fla. and registration will be located at Crabby Bill's Restaurant (1104 Lakeshore Boulevard Saint Cloud, Fla. 34769).

Walkers are encouraged to arrive at 10 a.m. for registration and fun at Crabby Bill's patio area and then begin the walk at 11 a.m. The walk will conclude with a statement from HOME board members about homelessness in Osceola County. Each participate will receive a Walk a Mile T-shirt to commemorate the event.

To register for the walk simply go to http://www.osceolahome.org/walkamile.asp and fill out the quick and easy registration form.

Business and individual sponsorships are available for the event. For more information please contact Mary Downey, HOME Deputy Director, at mdowney@osceolahome.org.

We look forward to you being a part of breaking the cycle of homelessness in Osceola County and Central Florida! Sphere: Related Content

Project Homeless Connect Information

There are several Project Homeless Connect events coming up in the tri-county area. Project Homeless Connect is an opportunity for homeless persons living on the street to get re-connected to society. Events include showers, meals, access to ID (important!!!!) jobs, mental health and substance abuse treatment, health services, and even haircuts. Homeless Services Network is in need of the following to make this event great:
volunteers
food- for meals and also non-perishables
water and soda
clothing- especially t-shirts and underwear
towels (for showers)
financial donations

Here are the event locations and dates (all are 8:00AM-2:00PM):
Friday July 18 in East Orange
Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church

Wednesday July 20 in Seminole County
Sanford Civic Center

Friday August 15 in Osceola County
Osceola Christian Ministry

Friday September 5 in West Orange
Central Florida Fairgrounds

Saturday September 27 in Orland0
Special Veteran's Stand-down at the Downtown Rec Center

If you can help please email Christine at the Homeless Services Network (christine@hsncfl.org) or call her at (407) 893-0133 x112 Sphere: Related Content

Happy Unbirthday HOME kids!

Tonight was possibly one of the most enjoyable nights here at HOME so far. Board Member/City Commissioner Jerry Gemskie helped plan an unbirthday party to celebrate all of our kids' birthdays at once. Distinguished guests included Mayor Jim Swan, Board Member/County Commissioner Paul Owen, and volunteer Carolyn and kids. The kids played pin the tail on the donkey:
Then they made Mr. Owen play pin the tail on the donkey:Then they played water balloon toss:

And finally we handed out presents and had unbirthday cake (of course!):
Thank you to Jerry Gemskie for helping to organize the event, to Josie Kassem, for securing sponsors for each and every one of our children, and to Ben and Jerry's for supplying the cake. I also would like to thank each and every one of our family sponsors, you cannot imagine how much you brightened our kids' day! They seriously think they're the luckiest kids around, and that's exactly how we want them to feel :) Sphere: Related Content

Memorial Day Weekend

We've had a busy week here on campus. On Saturday, Stephanie coordinated a Memorial Day BBQ potluck, which was a hit. We got to use our brand new grill (Stephanie now knows how to use a charcoal grill) to make hamburgers, hot dogs, and boca burgers.
Sunday was another fun-filled day. First, the families headed off to the Spring Fever Car Show, hosted by our buddies at Goin' Postal. As special "guests of honor," the kids got wristbands to go on the bounce houses and slides. They loved it! Did I mention that the raffle proceeds went to HOME as well?? Thank you Shane for everything!!!!!

The final event of the weekend was teen night. I was the lucky chaperone for this- we ate pizza and watched Hitch. The teens had a really good time and got to know each other a little better.

Coming up: we have a HOMELite event here on campus on June 7th from 11AM-2PM. This event will provide food, fun, hygiene items, and signups for the HOMELite program to motel families in Osceola.

We have an unbirthday party on June 9th. This is exactly what it sounds like- an un-birthday celebration for all of our kids at the same time. We are looking for people to sponsor kids and volunteers for the day of the event. Sphere: Related Content

Good Friday

It is a good Friday indeed. Today, our first families are moving in! We received our temporary certificate of occupancy yesterday and immediately called the our moms to tell them the good news. Of course, since it's been such a long time and because we at HOME are known to play jokes from time to time, most of the moms thought we were joking. Stephanie and Cliff had to convince them that they really should pack their cars and head in the direction of Determination Way. The families moving in today are in the most dire circumstances of any of our clients- all in motels and all with no way to pay next week's rent. One mom is actually due to deliver a baby today, and I can't tell you how thankful we all are that we were able to get her into HOME before the new arrival. The next few days/weeks will be spent settling in and getting used to the new lifestyle.


In other news- don't forget about the open house next Friday the 28th at 10AM. All are welcome, and we will be giving tours of the campus. Sphere: Related Content

An announcement...

If you look on the right hand side of this page, in the calendar section, you will see something VERY exciting. It's a date for our open house! Finally the time has arrived! I hope you will be able to join us for the grand opening of the very first transitional housing program for women in Osceola County. I can't tell you how anxiously the Board of Directors and staff has been awaiting this.

Of course, our families are even more excited than we are! This week we are (finally) getting the water hooked up and working on our certificate of occupancy so that moms & kids can move in. The campus looks great- all the landscaping has been installed, sidewalks are in, drywall is patched and we're more or less ready to go! Sphere: Related Content

As Home for the Holidays draws nearer...

I just realized that it's been a while since I posted- sorry about that. We've been really busy ramping up for Home for the Holidays (December 15th at Osceola Heritage Park) and getting things in order for our own grand opening coming up in January. We had our first resident volunteer day several weekends ago so that our families could start cleaning up their future homes- very exciting!

Thank you to those of you who have used the Amazon link on the right hand side of this page- we've earned almost $15 already! Funds earned from your clicks and purchases are used exclusively for emergency assistance and program supplies, so every little bit helps.

Upcoming events...
We've got a busy couple of weeks ahead of us, with lots of options for you to get involved. On Thursday evening, Fun Spot will give you free admission (rides and all) if you bring a toy worth at least $10. There will also be food and entertainment- it should be a great time!

December 7th marks the date of the last Project Homeless Connect of the year. For more information on the event and how to volunteer, click the link to the calendar event that's to the right hand side of the screen.

Of course, next week, beginning on Monday, volunteers are needed at Osceola Heritage Park to start sorting toys and food for Home for the Holidays. Please call Sue Ring at (407) 933-0870 x221 to register as a volunteer. You can also sign up to volunteer on the day of the event through Sue.

On December 21st (the longest night of the year), a vigil will be held to commemorate the lives of people who have died while homeless. I will post more information as soon as it becomes available.

Now some stats...
November was quite a month. We received our highest call volume ever from families in need of assistance. 36% of those calls were from intact or extended families- much higher than usual. 29% identified their primary need as affordable housing, while another 25% were in need of emergency shelter, usually due to an eviction or foreclosure. We helped several families who were living in cars or had been living without electricity for an extended period of time. We have also received several calls from families whose home is in foreclosure- did you know that FIVE Osceola zip codes are listed among the top 500 zips in terms of raw numbers of foreclosures?! The most unfortunate part is that we receive foreclosure and eviction calls far too late in the process to provide any sort of prevention services. We might be able to work with a family that is just starting to struggle, but by the time they reach out, the problem has snowballed.

It also seems that rising gas prices have had a domino effect on many families- not only is their gas budget stretched, but groceries have gotten really expensive, and other prices have gone up as well. Even the mainstream news media has acknowledged this- one of the local news networks aired stories about groceries and foreclosures within a 30 minute time period. You know it's bad when local economic issues trump Britney Spears' latest outburst for airtime... Sphere: Related Content

Got an event to share? Tell me about it!

You may have noticed that there's a new feature on the right hand side of this page. We've created a public calendar so that you can keep track of important HOME dates and activities. We also would like to include events from other social service providers- For example, click on the 13th and you will see that Habitat Osceola is having a grand opening of their new ReStore. If you have community events that you'd like me to add, please email me at moreinfo@osceolahome.org. Sphere: Related Content