What's Happening at Outreach?
At Outreach, despite our program center being limited in availability due to COVID-19, we continue to provide food, clean clothes, hygiene supplies, and other resources to homeless youth. Would you consider donating $25, $50, $100, or some other amount to Outreach, to help us meet our goal of $15,000 which will aid in providing additional resources and hope to homeless youth in Indianapolis?
As all of us move into the weekend, our team at Outreach wanted to give you an update on just what is happening at Outreach.
The Outreach Program Center was open this past week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 am to 1 pm each day for a walk-thru type of service with youth and assisted them with getting their mail, a food bag, socks/underwear, and hygiene supplies. We were able to assist 60 youth with these services and some home deliveries!
Our case managers have been working to share hope with the youth through connecting online and texting this week! It has been a difficult and discouraging time for all of the youth that we serve and our case managers are sharing positive, encouraging words and coping strategies for all of the youth during this time.
ARCH and In-House case managers have been delivering food, cleaning supplies and other necessities to youth that have been affected by COVID-19 especially with the closure of the schools and limited transportation.
The entire team at Outreach has been working to reinvent how we best serve the youth of Outreach during this crisis and moving forward.
What Some Of Our Case Managers Have To Share:
“This time of serving youth away from the program center has been really strange and jarring. And also challenging in ways I haven’t thought of in a while. I like to be needed; I like to answer the needs of others through tangible service. So being away from my clients, with very limited physical contact, has been extremely challenging!! But I’m learning and realizing how important a message reaching out to a client just to check in can mean. I’m learning how prayer really redirects my heart’s attitude toward my clients. And I’m learning just how much I love getting to see my clients face to face throughout the week at our program center.”
– Katie, In-House Case Manager
“With such uncertain times everyone is looking for some source of hope or comfort, so I’m doing my best to FaceTime/call/text with students and be a listening ear and provide encouragement where I can. It’s been a lot of learning new skills on the fly; unemployment isn’t something we’ve typically had to fill out with youth. I’ve also been passing out food boxes, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper to students and families when I can. Providing support to our youth with kids has been one of my biggest jobs this past week.”
– Jenna, ARCH Case Manager
“This week our ARCH Case Managers have been communicating with school social workers to ensure that students facing food insecurity have what they need. Keeping in line with social distancing, our ARCH case managers have made multiple food drop-offs, picking up food bags from Lawrence Schools where volunteers placed prepared bags in the back seat of the car. Our Case Managers then delivered the homes and apartments where students are staying, sending a text or message via social media when it was delivered. We plan on continuing to ensure that the students of our city have access to food, and we are proud of our community coming together to help each other in this time of need.”
– Lydia, ARCH Case Manager
What’s Next?
We will continue the same type of ministry format that we have organized this past week which includes:
The program center being open from 10 am to 1 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday for walk-up services.
Case managers will continue to pick up and deliver food and supplies to youth from either the program center or the schools.
Case managers will continue to provide hope through online and texting methods with youth maintaining regular contact with them.
Most of all we will continue to pray for the youth and all that they are going through on a daily basis.
What Do We Need?
Prayer – Our staff and youth need your prayers now more than ever!
These items are highly needed:
Single serving chips, snacks
Baby wipes
Toilet paper
Protein meats **canned or foil packed**
Sanitizers
Tents
Underwear
Ziplock baggies (making separate hygiene kits)
For more information or to buy off our Amazon list: https://www.outreachindiana.org/greatest-needs
Give to our newly launched campaign to help the youth! More details here.
