Similar to what happens on the Human Services Campus every day, over 25 organizations came together to provide a holistic set of resources to people experiencing homelessness at Project Connect in north Phoenix on May 20th. HSC is very grateful for all of the volunteers and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 35th Avenue and Cactus Rd for hosting the event. Nearly 100 volunteers assisted over 160 individuals seeking assistance. Project Connect events are held every six to eight weeks at different locations in Maricopa County.
“It's a healthy way to connect people to things that they might need to address their homelessness or if they're at risk of homelessness, connect them to some services that might be able to help them maintain the housing that they already have,” said Amy Schwabenlender, the Executive Director of HSC.
Each guest is paired with a volunteer guide to walk them through the process of receiving services. Partner organizations help people with housing and emergency shelter, job services, State benefits, medical care and more. For example, Homeless ID Project helped people regain identification paperwork that had been lost or stolen.
“Most housing programs out there are going to require identification documents, like Birth Certificates and IDs,” said Eric Ortega of Homeless ID Project. “Anybody knows that if you're looking for work, that's one of the first things that employers will ask you for as well. Getting services like food stamps, medical insurance, all those other things really rely on having those documents in place.”
“We really feel good at the end of the day if our guests are leaving feeling like they've accomplished what they needed to do all in one day,” said Schwabenlender.
HSC also thanks Valley of the Sun United Way for underwriting a portion of the Project Connect event expenses.
