Every homeless person who walks into the Juneau Arts & Culture Center Tuesday can leave with a new haircut, full belly, filled-out Permanent Fund Dividend application, updated voter registration and much more.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all a part of \u201cProject Homeless Connect,\u201d an annual event that aims to connect Juneau\u2019s homeless to services and resources available to them in the capital city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all putting our resources together collectively, and we\u2019re saying, \u2018Here\u2019s what we got,\u2019\u201d said Tamara Rowcroft, one of the organizers of the event and the co-chair of the Juneau Coalition of Housing and Homelessness. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got a pretty great package of services and resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives from 35 groups and organizations will be on hand at the different kiosks inside the JACC during the event, which is taking place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Some of the services include housing assistance, mental health services, legal services, veteran support, voter registration, PFD applications, birth certificates and other forms of ID.<\/p>\n
When attendants enter the JACC on Tuesday, they\u2019ll first be invited to a side room to have coffee and fill out a survey to help assess each person\u2019s circumstances and needs. <\/p>\n
Inside the main room, they can receive clothing collected by United Way of Southeast Alaska, visit the different kiosks and have a complimentary hot breakfast or lunch at a dining area. Abby\u2019s Kitchen & Catering is catering the event.<\/p>\n
Next door to the JACC at the Zach Gordon Youth Center, stylists who have volunteered their time will provide haircuts while those wait in line for their turn can fill out their PFD application. Those who don\u2019t have an Alaska ID can go to the DMV from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. by transportation the event has provided.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can really refer out and do more what I call wrap around services for people,\u201d Rowcroft said of the event. \u201c… A lot of these programs help the homeless make the connections they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Juneau Coalition of Housing and Homelessness is sponsoring the project, and they obtained several grants to provide the funding to rent the JACC, pay for the catering and cover other expenses. This marks the event\u2019s fifth year. <\/p>\n
Some 200 people attended last year. Juneau\u2019s homeless population is estimated to be around 500 to 600.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s really scary, too, is we don\u2019t see a lot of repeats, so it\u2019s like a constant problem. The clientele changes every year,\u201d said Shari Partin, JCHH\u2019s other co-chair. She paused and considered after a moment, \u201cWe do have a few repeats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rowcroft echoed the sentiment and said the idea of the first event was to help the chronically homeless. <\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, living in cars, living on the streets,\u201d Rowcroft said. \u201cI think there is … a group that we miss who don\u2019t feel comfortable being in these kinds of circumstances. Groups we don\u2019t capture a lot for this event are adolescents and school-aged kids, so that\u2019s why there\u2019s sort of a separate connection we try to make for adolescent and for school-aged kids through the school district cause we want to try to pick those numbers up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also frequently absent from the event are those who do not consider themselves homeless.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a guy in yesterday \u2014 he\u2019s staying with friends, he doesn\u2019t have his own place, he\u2019s looking for work and he was like, \u2018I don\u2019t really think of myself as homeless.\u2019 And I said you really need to come to this event and get information,\u201d Rowcroft said, emphasizing that any person who thinks they need help from any of the different services should come.<\/p>\n
Rowcroft noted that the project not only helps connect the homeless to services they may need, it also helps service providers in different agencies connect with one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get to all talk to each other,\u201d Rowcroft said. \u201cWe get to all work together and learn what the services are and who has access to services, and it allows us to do a better job and helping our clients make those connections as well in the community. … It helps us for future funding, for requests to do more housing and to bring more resources to the community. Before we started doing this we didn\u2019t really know each other because we have these different disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Partin and Rowcroft said they welcome volunteers, and those with questions should call them at their respective offices at 780-4475 or 780-4500.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Clara Miller at 523-2243 or at clara.miller@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n
\nKNOW & GO<\/p>\n
What: Project Homeless Connect<\/p>\n
Where: Juneau Arts & Culture Center, 350 Whittier Street<\/p>\n
Date: Tuesday, Jan. 26<\/p>\n
When: 9 a.m.-3 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every homeless person who walks into the Juneau Arts & Culture Center Tuesday can leave with a new haircut, full belly, filled-out Permanent Fund Dividend application, updated voter registration and much more. It\u2019s all a part of \u201cProject Homeless Connect,\u201d an annual event that aims to connect Juneau\u2019s homeless to services and resources available to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18808"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}