Published:
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Jewels Helping Hands is an organization in Spokane providing direct outreach to people experiencing homelessness in the area. Julie Garcia, the organization’s executive director, answered some questions to share the importance of this kind of outreach and what we can all do to help our unhoused, underserved neighbors.
Q: What does Jewels Helping Hands (JHH) do?
A: Through kindness, compassion, dignity, and respect, JHH ensures individuals and families that are houseless or food insecure have their basic needs met to survive, thrive, and connect to community resources.
JHH provides direct client outreach six days a week to people experiencing homelessness throughout our county to ensure people are met where they are at. JHH provides 60 beds for unhoused individuals. Priority for these beds is given to our medically fragile neighbors, people living with disabilities, the elderly, and pregnant woman. These centers are community-based and provided in partnership with medical access provided by our vast number of community partners. JHH also provides 10 emergency transitional living spaces for those exiting their cycles of homelessness in a co-living environment.
JHH offers peer support services to people experiencing homelessness. This program ensures a holistic approach to exiting homelessness for their clients. JHH provides a food bank for the food insecure and a clothing bank that serves the entire community, not just those without homes. JHH provides meals to shelters and supplies to other organizations wanting to participate in outreach. Our organization also provides mobile showers and hygiene products to this population.
JHH has a second chance employment program for those with lived experience and people who are unhoused trying to exit their cycles of homelessness through employment. JHH’s Jay Carlson-Forget-Me-Not program provides train tickets and bus passes to individuals as they rekindle relationships with their natural support systems inside and outside of our state.
JHH is also the encampment resolution team of the ERP (Encampment Resolution Program) for the Department of Commerce, formally known as the ROW (Right of Way Initiative) program. JHH does coordinated entry assessments which connects individuals to housing options in our community.
JHH participates in Community Court for those who were issued citations and advocates to the judicial system on their behalf. JHH visits the jails and helps incarcerated individuals have a place to go after their incarceration has ended.
Q: What does direct outreach consist of?
A: JHH direct outreach consists of three teams providing basic needs to individuals. Examples include but are not limited to: water, food, warm weather gear, Narcan, clothing, sleeping bags and bedding, hygiene, and first-aid supplies.
During inclement weather, JHH provides water access to unsheltered individuals and families through direct outreach and water stations. Building relationships and trust with this population helps JHH offer resources and encourages participation by clients.
Q: Why is direct outreach so important?
A: Meeting people where they has been proven to work for engaging with this population. It reaches individuals who are not accessing services to help them gain access. It helps the community understand the population and each individual situation or circumstance. Direct outreach builds relationships and trust as well as a sense of community. This kind of outreach keeps people alive.
Q: What does a typical day look like?
A: A typical day starts with an outreach meeting to assess the population's needs that day. Areas of the county are assigned to each team and that team stocks their vehicle for the day’s outreach. JHH touches an average of 300 unique individuals a day and averages 800 waters and 300 sandwiches daily. JHH transports people to shelters and resources as well as helps clean up the areas they exist in. We scour the city and visit encampments offering help and support.
Q: What is your biggest challenge as an organization?
A: The biggest challenge for our organization is political will and funding. JHH provides a variety of services but typically cannot compete with larger organizations. Our city’s government does not support housing, mental health or addiction services well. The divisive political climate has left a steadily increasing houseless population with nowhere to go and the criminalization of the unhoused has created massive barriers to housing.
Q: What misconceptions do you encounter the most about people experiencing homelessness?
A: Here are some of the most frequent misconceptions about homelessness.
A: Housing is the most common factor for homelessness, in addition to a lack of resources, lack of access to services, lack of community, and deep personal trauma.
Q: What policies and support systems could local governments put into place to better support our unhoused neighbors?
A: Local governments could start by making homelessness a protected status. Local governments could also create non-criminalization solutions, streamline access to housing and mental health services, and have treatment beds readily available and accessible.
For more information and how you can get involved, please visit the website for Jewels Helping Hands.
Q: What does Jewels Helping Hands (JHH) do?
A: Through kindness, compassion, dignity, and respect, JHH ensures individuals and families that are houseless or food insecure have their basic needs met to survive, thrive, and connect to community resources.
JHH provides direct client outreach six days a week to people experiencing homelessness throughout our county to ensure people are met where they are at. JHH provides 60 beds for unhoused individuals. Priority for these beds is given to our medically fragile neighbors, people living with disabilities, the elderly, and pregnant woman. These centers are community-based and provided in partnership with medical access provided by our vast number of community partners. JHH also provides 10 emergency transitional living spaces for those exiting their cycles of homelessness in a co-living environment.
JHH offers peer support services to people experiencing homelessness. This program ensures a holistic approach to exiting homelessness for their clients. JHH provides a food bank for the food insecure and a clothing bank that serves the entire community, not just those without homes. JHH provides meals to shelters and supplies to other organizations wanting to participate in outreach. Our organization also provides mobile showers and hygiene products to this population.
JHH has a second chance employment program for those with lived experience and people who are unhoused trying to exit their cycles of homelessness through employment. JHH’s Jay Carlson-Forget-Me-Not program provides train tickets and bus passes to individuals as they rekindle relationships with their natural support systems inside and outside of our state.
JHH is also the encampment resolution team of the ERP (Encampment Resolution Program) for the Department of Commerce, formally known as the ROW (Right of Way Initiative) program. JHH does coordinated entry assessments which connects individuals to housing options in our community.
JHH participates in Community Court for those who were issued citations and advocates to the judicial system on their behalf. JHH visits the jails and helps incarcerated individuals have a place to go after their incarceration has ended.
Q: What does direct outreach consist of?
A: JHH direct outreach consists of three teams providing basic needs to individuals. Examples include but are not limited to: water, food, warm weather gear, Narcan, clothing, sleeping bags and bedding, hygiene, and first-aid supplies.
During inclement weather, JHH provides water access to unsheltered individuals and families through direct outreach and water stations. Building relationships and trust with this population helps JHH offer resources and encourages participation by clients.
Q: Why is direct outreach so important?
A: Meeting people where they has been proven to work for engaging with this population. It reaches individuals who are not accessing services to help them gain access. It helps the community understand the population and each individual situation or circumstance. Direct outreach builds relationships and trust as well as a sense of community. This kind of outreach keeps people alive.
Q: What does a typical day look like?
A: A typical day starts with an outreach meeting to assess the population's needs that day. Areas of the county are assigned to each team and that team stocks their vehicle for the day’s outreach. JHH touches an average of 300 unique individuals a day and averages 800 waters and 300 sandwiches daily. JHH transports people to shelters and resources as well as helps clean up the areas they exist in. We scour the city and visit encampments offering help and support.
Q: What is your biggest challenge as an organization?
A: The biggest challenge for our organization is political will and funding. JHH provides a variety of services but typically cannot compete with larger organizations. Our city’s government does not support housing, mental health or addiction services well. The divisive political climate has left a steadily increasing houseless population with nowhere to go and the criminalization of the unhoused has created massive barriers to housing.
Q: What misconceptions do you encounter the most about people experiencing homelessness?
A: Here are some of the most frequent misconceptions about homelessness.
- That there is a cookie cutter answer to solving homelessness instead of the fact that every single individual has a different situation and different barriers. They cannot be generalized.
- That all people experiencing homelessness have substance use disorder.
- That all people experiencing homelessness are criminals
- That all people experiencing homelessness choose this “lifestyle”.
- There are enough beds or enough services to assist people out of their cycles of homelessness.
- That incarceration leads people experiencing homelessness to housing.
- That there is enough housing.
- That poverty is a character flaw instead of a situation or circumstance.
A: Housing is the most common factor for homelessness, in addition to a lack of resources, lack of access to services, lack of community, and deep personal trauma.
Q: What policies and support systems could local governments put into place to better support our unhoused neighbors?
A: Local governments could start by making homelessness a protected status. Local governments could also create non-criminalization solutions, streamline access to housing and mental health services, and have treatment beds readily available and accessible.
For more information and how you can get involved, please visit the website for Jewels Helping Hands.
Explore More:
