The Third Annual Project Homeless Connect took place on May 11 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at The Chapel, a huge church, in Akron. This event, is a community wide effort to bring service providers together in one location for one day and highlighted the many types of assistance available to those experiencing homelessness delivering real time aid to those in need.Services provided included dental care, legal assistance, mammogram screenings, HIV/AIDS testing, prostate cancer testing, job placement services, housing placement applications, clothing, meals, hair cuts, and of course our very own benefit eligibility determination services among others.
The concept for Project Homeless Connect came from a model that originated in San Francisco under Mayor Gavin Newsom in October 2004. Since its inception more than 170 cities in the United States have hosted PHC. Cities of every size from coast to coast have engaged in PHC events. Akron represents the 170th community to host PHC and the first in the state of Ohio (as reported by the Suburbanite newspaper).
We were pleased to be present and helping those with the most need gain access to benefits. We were among friends including Cornerstone Church which was inspired to become a benefit bank site after the OBB Express visited last year.
On a side note, it was hard to see so many people who had major health issues without any health/dental insurance. The biggest realization was meeting those who had rotting teeth. They were able to get them extracted at this event but it made me wonder how difficult it will be for them to obtain employment without teeth. It is already a very competitive market and I think appearance really effects people's ability to get jobs.
Well, at least this is one step in the right direction.
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