RCoHH Meeting #2 (9/25/13)

New Members?

RCOHH

Welcome New Faces… (and old)!

Introduce yourselves! • Name…

• What you do…

• How you heard about RCoHH

• Why you’re here.

Group Mission…

RCOHH

“So… what’s RCoHH?”

“The Rice Coalition on Hunger and Homelessness is a student-led service and advocacy group focused on

tackling systemic poverty and homelessness in Houston.”

Group Mission…

RCOHH

Put simply…

We’re looking for ways to help the folks in need:

• Stay well-fed.

• Be uplifted out of poverty.

• And have others be made aware of their existence.

Meeting Agenda

RCOHH

TODAY’S MEETING

Meeting Agenda

RCOHH

Meeting Agenda

• Sandwiches For All Recap

• OWLS Consulting Experiment Cases

• Photojournalism Project • Officer Initiation

• Group Formation / Idea Generation / Other News

• Youth Homelessness (Laura Moore)

Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)

RCOHH

BIGGEST EVER

60 Volunteers +

2 Hours =

630 Sack Lunches

Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)

RCOHH Total Expenditures: ~$ 800 | Unit: ~$ 1.30

Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)

RCOHH

Distribution Sites:

• Food Not Bombs (100)

• Palmer Way Station (200)

• SEARCH Homeless Services (100)

• Emergency Aid Coalition (100)

• Turning Point (70)

Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)

RCOHH

Feedback? Suggestions?

Fundraising Ideas?

Sandwiches-For-All

RCOHH

Next Event: October 20, 2013 or October 27, 2013?

Begin… Owls Consulting

Owls Consulting Seeks to partner volunteers directly with homeless individuals looking for help.

The Story of a Sad Sandwich…

And so… Our young idealistic protagonist ventures off to hear stories of injustice, abuse, poverty, and suffering.

The Story of a Sad Sandwich…

Only to hear the refrains: “Nope. I don’t need anything” “I’d say 90-95% of the people out here just want to be homeless.” “I just want weed”

The Story of a Sad Sandwich…

Oh.

The Story of a Sad Sandwich

RCOHH

“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist”

- George Carlin

Owls Consulting Project

RCOHH

OWLS Consulting (“Why we still need to care”)

Client #1: T.

RCOHH

• Photo hidden for privacy.

• Client #1 is the perfect example of a homeless man who genuinely needs help…

Client #1: T.

RCOHH

• 42 year old from New Mexico.

• Moved to Houston 3 months ago. Has been homeless since.

• Likely suffering from low-level schizophrenia

• Requests: • Recently, robbed at the Beacon. ID stolen. Unable to

obtain recurring benefits.

• Likely needs help with mental issues.

Client #2: P.

RCOHH

• Elderly Ethiopian man. Previously worked for Methodist.

• Using disability ($800) to pay for apartment. Landlords abusive. Cost is too high. Likely to end up in shelter.

• Requests: o Looking for help identifying low-cost housing (~$300)

Client #3/4:J&E.

RCOHH

• Former Veteran. Real chatty.

• Had been homeless for many months. Recently found homeowner willing to spare a room for cost.

• Requests: • Looking for way to secure benefits

o Food Stamps o Medicare o Social Security

• Looking to recover fiancé's ID after stolen at SEARCH

**** Client #5: L.

RCOHH

• Elderly Hispanic lady. Mother of three.

• Unemployed after recent operation. Currently staying with daughter-in-law. Likely to be kicked out in next few weeks.

• Requests: • Looking for help applying for jobs

o Need help making resume o Need help identifying places that are hiring o Need help applying online (no internet access)

• Looking for low-cost housing or other benefits.

Lessons thus far…

RCOHH

Big lessons from our recent attempt to identify clients…

• Better to create conversations with people at sites directly.

• Cards travel much further than expected.

• Homeless community is incredibly varied.

Next Step:

RCOHH

Applications for Consultants • Client Interfacing:

• This type of consultant will be responsible for directly contacting and maintaining connection with the client. Will provide status reports and may end up meeting with client.

• Rice Researcher:

• This type of consultant will be responsible for researching opportunities, performing assistance from Rice. (No travel required).

Houston Invisible People

RCOHH

Houston Invisible People Project (HIPP)

HIPP

RCOHH

Groups:

RCOHH

Locations/Collaborators • TxLIHS (Low Income Housing) • One Voice • SEARCH • FNB / Palmer • At – Large • Film Project

One Voice Texas (OVT) A network of public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the greater Houston area using collaboration, capacity-building, and advocacy to ensure the health and human services needs of all Texans are addressed. OVT Homeless Initiatives 1. Increase Awareness 2. Expand the number of providers 3. Expand the opportunities for targeted populations to receive services

OVT has youth and adult-specific initiatives

Collaboration with RCoHH •Speaker series featuring Dr Katherine Barillas, OVT Director of Child Welfare Policy (and others) •Workshops on legislative process and public health work •Student involvement in Texas legislative process •Potential for new partnerships, opportunities, and connections

“Everybody has a birthday. Help kids in homeless shelters celebrate theirs”-

Dosomething.org

Over 1 million children experience homelessness every year. Many kids’ birthdays fall while they are in a shelter, making it hard to celebrate.

Creating and Sending a homemade birthday card to a shelter will help ensure that everyone is celebrated on their special day

Create on homemade birthday card Take a picture of you and the card We can take pictures for you and email them to

you if you don’t have a camera or smart phone with you

Submit the picture online to have your name entered once for a chance to win a $4,000 scholarship

Create 2 more cards to enter your name again… and your name can be entered an infinite # of times

Due by October 11th

Laura will mail all of the cards made in this meeting in a manilla folder to the shelter

We will be sending our cards to either the Star of Hope Mission or Covenant House Texas

Feel free to make more on your own! The website is DoSomething.org for more

information

Gender neutral Age neutral Blank on the inside The shelter will write in a personal note

to the kid or teen.

Please don’t write your own name on the card

Get creative! Drawing of well known cartoon

characters, such as despicable me minions, seem to be thoroughly enjoyed