Project Homeless Connect 2010

Korrin B.

March 20, 2010 - 9:30 PM

Every now and then I have these moments where I feel like I am doing what I am suppose to be doing in the Universe. Brief moments that reassure me that all of this work I am doing is toward the right direction. This last Thursday was one of those moments for me.

I have been interning all winter term with Project Homeless Connect for Lane County. I have mentioned this event before in previous posts, but as a summary, Project Homeless Connect is a one-day event held at the fairgrounds in Eugene that brings several critical services to the homeless residents of Lane County. Last year, I volunteered at the event and this year I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to help with the planning of the event. After several planning meetings and a Wednesday filled with setting up the bare fairgrounds to look like a small city of service booths, Thursday was the actual event. All of the planners and myself crossed our fingers for a smooth and helpful event.

I arrived at the fairgrounds at 8:00am. The doors didn't opened for our guests until 9:00am, but there were already several homeless residents sleeping in locations around the facility, waiting to get in. From the moment I entered the main exhibition hall of our event, I could feel my heart warming. I looked around, completely inspired by the bundles of volunteers and the tables after tables of service providers. The event has everything from medical and dental to pet care and bike repair. It was going to be a long day, but I knew I was going to leave with a great feeling that we had accomplished a wonderful thing for these members of our community.

I started the day doing some of the intake paperwork with guests. I got to sit down individually with guests and ask them some of our basic survey questions and find out what services they needed most out of the event. I love being able to have this personal interaction with the homeless community. Each individual at the event has their own unique, personal story and it is so educational to hear them. I got to continue this personal interaction throughout the rest of the day as I worked over in the giveaways section of the event.

The giveaways section is where the guests can come and get all of the in-kind donations that we were able to roundup, such as sleeping bags, coats, socks, hygiene items, tents, and so on. Every guest I talked to during this was so incredibly grateful. I could not stop smiling. I loved talking to each and every one of them, hearing their incredible, sometimes quite humorous, stories. I would help guests find coats in their sizes. I remember one woman who tried on so many and was just so cute as she'd model the different styles and ask for my opinion on what would be the best looking one for spring. At the event, I saw a population of such diverse backgrounds, each person so resilient, thankful, and determined. I talked to another woman who had just gotten married and was getting ready to go back to school. She wanted to find a jacket that would help her look more presentable for her upcoming classes. Another guest told me about the work they were doing to start a new sobriety program in the community after having such great success with their own treatment. These were people who were breaking down the stereotypes of homelessness and using every little bit of their remaining strength to rebuild.

Throughout my education and path toward figuring out what I want to do for the rest of my life, I have developed and adopted a motto: By strengthening our communities, we strengthen our nation. On Thursday, I felt as though I was living out this motto. I left the fairgrounds at 6:00pm. It had been a long day and I was so tired. I definitely did not feel like going home and studying for my final that was the next morning. However, I was able to shake the tiredness by contemplating what had taken place that day. I had been part of serving over 1,400 homeless Lane County residents. I saw my future work flash in front of my eyes for a brief moment and I felt pretty good about its direction.