2010-2011 - Year in Review

We've recently completed our reporting for our most recent fiscal year, ending June 30, 2011.

We're very proud of the work we do to assist the community's at-risk and homeless youth.  Here is a summary from our year-end report:

• Total youth served                                                  895
• New youth seen last year                                       538
• Youth continued from previous year                         357
• Meals served                                                        6700
• Youth employed as cook & janitor                         10
• Clothing & toiletry items distributed          3420 items to 260 youth
• Food boxes for youth & families                            124
• Volunteers helping at HOME & hours    94 volunteers/2065 hours
• Small grants and donations                         about $25,000

We ask the youth to evaluate our services each year.  This year, 50 teens filled out the survey anonymously.  Some of their responses were:

• 84-86% reported that HOME helped them to "feel good about myself", "get along with others", "make and keep friends", and "learn I could do things I didn't think I could do".
• The top 3 ways HOME helped them were as a safe, positive place to hang out, a place to have a meal, and a place where they could find "someone to talk to".

In answer to the question "How else has HOME helped you?" they responded

• “The Staff has always been there for me when I need someone to talk to”
• “I’ve gotten through a lot of personal problems with the staff’s help”
• “Makes me feel wanted”
• “they helped me get a job and that helped me get job experience”,
• “they encouraged me to stay in school”
• “Helped me get over depression”
• “Kept me comforted from doing something stupid”
• "they're nice, they gave me a trustworthy person to talk to"
• "They're pretty awesome"
• "I love HOME"
• "It makes me so happy when I am here”

                                                  

Japanese Students Visit HOME - THANK YOU!!

Last April I was contacted by the Hands On Volunteer Project Coordinator about HOME being a site for students from Tokyo International University (TIU) participating in summer service trips.

The theme of the trips is Homelessness and Hunger.  The students might clean or prepare a meal and we would take the time to explain to them what we do here at HOME and why it is important, especially around the issues of homelessness and hunger.

We have had TIU students come to HOME each year for several years and it’s been a mutually beneficial experience.  I said yes.

It can be a challenge when we have groups come to HOME to have their needs for productive activity met at the same time our staff and youth don’t feel intruded upon.  We’ve learned to limit the numbers in a group to, ideally, no more than 7 or 8 or they begin to overwhelm our facility.  I also develop a list of tasks to which they can assign themselves.

With a little bit of planning and oversight, volunteer groups bring energy and enthusiasm to tasks that need to be done but which our staff can often not accomplish.  They also come away, hopefully, with some insight into the lives of the young people who come to HOME.

And so it happened with our visit from TIU students.

Right away they were surprised by a welcome sign in English and Japanese done by one of the youth who is taking Japanese in school.  





Incidentally, this young person prepared the sign without prompting by any adult and even had the HOME staff and youth sign it.



It was an excellent meal!






They were a cheerful, industrious group.



Another wonderful experience with TIU students!   THANKS for all your help!!

Thanks, First Christian Church!!

Our very special partners at First Christian Church notified us that they were ready for a Spring Project.  They came by to meet with us and look around, settling on building some much needed shelving in our pantry as well as replacing the ancient shades covering our windows in the dining area and office.  It was a two-part project, one on Memorial Day Weekend and then another Sunday in July for a total of about 45-50 hours worth of hard labor.  The first day they began work on the shelves, dusted, mopped, organized, cleaned, vacuumed, swept inside and out and the place just sparkled!  AND they got us some new blinds to replace the decades old ones.

Window Washing

Building shelves for the pantry

Spiffing up our pantry

The next session was spent finishing up with the shelving AND weed wacking the front yard!   What a great group this is – they’re a bunch of retired folks who aren’t happy to just sit around relaxing.  They work hard and we’re so lucky to have them as friends and neighbors.

Before the weeds were whacked





After the Weed Whacker!



New blinds too - they look great!!  In the office....



And new blinds in the dining room!!

THANK YOU, Ambassadors Club of the First Christian Church!