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Third Annual Indy Homeless Connect
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Indiana Convention Center
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Each year, nearly 800 people experiencing homelessness or in a housing crisis are served at Indy Homeless Connect, a community outreach event sponsored by the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention (CHIP). The all day event at the Indiana Convention Center focuses on care and outreach for people who do not have permanent housing. Individuals, families and children are able to access a host of basic services.
Indy Homeless Connect is a one-of-a-kind event that significantly impacts many homeless individuals in Indianapolis. Homeless adults and children who attend the event take advantage of the free services, made easily accessible through free, coordinated transportation service throughout the city. Services include health care, vision care, dental care, legal assistance, housing referrals, employment assistance and specialty services such as haircuts, free long distance calls, internet access, book give-away, veteran services, ID cards, birth certificates, mainstream benefit applications and massages.
In exit surveys, attendees have overwhelmingly expressed appreciation for the event. One referred to the day as "the most helpful thing ever." Another woman had this to say: "Usually, you can't get anyone to help. Everyone is shuffling us off to someone else. Today's the first day we've had a break in three years."
In addition, local service providers are impacted by the process of working together on a large-scale, coordinated event addressing the issues of homelessness. A key element of the Blueprint to End Homelessness (Indianapolis' 10-year action plan to end homelessness; CHIP is the lead entity to implement it) is community collaboration. This event has been successful collaboration of more than 50 entities each year, an important step as we learn as a community to work together toward common goals.
Many of the more than 450 community volunteers who participate each year comment that the experience demystifies the concept of homelessness for them. Some of the comments we have received after the event illustrate how some of the volunteers were impacted: "It was a life-changing event." "I was honored to not only serve as a volunteer but have the opportunity to 'connect' with our homeless." "I realized that the day-to-day struggles they face are not very different from the struggles faced by those who are fortunate."
In past years, Indy Homeless Connect has been attended and endorsed by Mayor Bart Peterson and Philip Mangano, the Bush administration's point person on homelessness. The event receives the kind of positive, large-scale, community-wide attention necessary to bring the issue of homelessness into the spotlight. Community members cannot support the cause of ending homelessness if they do not first know that the problem exists, what the issues surrounding homelessness are, and what is needed to end it. This event goes a long way in our efforts of community awareness and rallying community-wide support for the Blueprint.
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