April 2016

Serving Those Who Serve The Homeless

Coalition Teambuilding at Young Adult Resource Center

Last month, Coalition staff members spent an afternoon at the Salvation Army's Young Adult Resource Center (YARC) assisting with an afternoon of games and activities with homeless young adults who use the center. Activities included stations with different games for the clients (everything from Pictionary to games seen on the "Minute to Win It" game show), and an "unusual facts" scavenger hunt where clients had to ask questions to figure out which facts belonged to which person.

Teambuilding activities like this are required for Coalition staff. Each quarter, different staff members arrange several teambuilding activities for their coworkers, not only to share experiences with one another, but to learn more about the organizations that the Coalition serves. Each staff member completes eight hours of teambuilding each year, and everyone agrees that these opportunities are not only fun, but serve a greater purpose.

"It was a really fun and eye-opening experience," said Coalition Executive Assistant Monica Montoya. "Volunteering at the YARC gave me the opportunity to not only learn more about the valuable services Salvation Army provides, but I also learned a lot about the barriers that these young adults face on a daily basis."

A Look Back at the 2016 Count & Survey

This January, the Coalition organized and led the 2016 Point-In-Time Homeless Count & Survey - expanding the unsheltered portion of the Count & Survey from one day to three, and incorporating the use of tablet technology. These changes allowed partner agency staff and volunteers to conduct brief, conversational surveys with homeless individuals. Capturing this additional information will help The Way Home continue to refine its homeless response system.

A new blog post is up on The Way Home's website that looks back on the 2016 Count & Survey and captured some great feedback from partner agency participants and volunteers.

Numbers from the 2016 Count & Survey will be released later this Spring.

#40toNoneDay 2016


Coalition staff participating in the first #40toNoneDay last year!

On Wednesday, April 27, True Colors Fund will hold its second annual #40toNoneDay to raise public awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth homelessness, and the Coalition is proud to be participating again this year!

Locally, 25% of homeless youth and young adults identify as LGBT, and nationally the number is 40% - yet LGBT young people make up only 7% of the general youth population. Important work is being done locally and around the nation to help reduce the disproportionate percentage of LGBT homeless youth to none!

Last year's #40toNoneDay reached more than 17 million people online and helped spread awareness of the issue and ways that we can all play a role in ending LGBT youth homelessness.

Would you like to participate? Click here to view our 2016 #40toNoneDay social media guide with tips on how you can get involved and custom suggested messages for Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to seeing some local hashtags online later this month!

The Proof is in the Numbers...

The Way Home is continuing to make incredible progress toward its goals. Check out the infographic below to see how many people we've housed in 2016 so far, and how many people we've housed since the beginning of each initiative!

Click on the image below to view an interactive version of the infographic.