Volunteers Needed for Project Homeless Connect

In fall of 2008, the United States Census Bureau released a special report naming Buffalo as the third poorest large city in the United States, with approximately one-third of its adult population living below the poverty line, and 42% of its children living in poverty. Approximately 2,000 people (including people in families) are homeless on any given night, a number that has not changed dramatically in recent years.

On July 17th, the WNY Coalition for the Homeless in partnership with the Homeless Alliance of WNY, Neighborhood Legal Services and the City of Buffalo will be bringing Project Homeless Connect to Buffalo for the first time.

Project Homeless Connect is a national best practice model that was pioneered in San Francisco in 2004 and has since spread to over 200 communities around the world. The event brings all sorts of service providers and resources to one place, on one day, to connect with the community’s homeless and near-homeless population. Homeless individuals will receive onsite services as well as information and referrals.

Buffalo’s Project Homeless Connect will take place at the:

Buffalo Convention Center
July 17th 10am-6pm

For more information visit our website at:

http://projecthomelessconnectbuffalo.org/

We are still in need of about a 100 volunteers to help with the activities of the day. We are asking volunteers to sign up for either a morning shift (that will begin with set up at 8am and will end at 2pm) or an afternoon shift (that will begin at 2pm and end with tear down at 8pm). If you can only commit to parts of either of the shifts, that is also fine.

If you’re interested in volunteering please email Joyelle Tedeschi at wnyhomeless@gmail.com and visit the Volunteer Opportunities section of our website.

The goal of the event is to bring the entire community together to reach out to some of the most marginalized and neglected folks in the area and directly provide them with important services they are not able to afford. While not a solution in itself to the root economic and social causes of poverty and homeless, Project Homeless Connect is a vital step towards building a broad based public-private movement to end homelessness and poverty in Buffalo.

We need your help to make this event a success.