Central Outreach & Advocacy Center

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What is our Mission?

by Kimberly Parker

What is the mission of Central Outreach & Advocacy Center (Central OAC)?

“We open doors to overcome and prevent homelessness.”

Our mission statement has changed over the years. This latest version was adopted by our Board of Directors in 2017 in conjunction with our new current three-year strategic plan. I often begin any talk I give with our mission statement and then go on to share how we accomplish our mission through our three main programs: supportive services, job readiness, and advocacy.

In sharing about our mission, I also talk about how we are not going to eliminate homelessness on our own. As we provide our vital services and work in partnership with other agencies, I believe we can make a difference for those who find themselves in a situation of homelessness. It takes all of us working together, doing the work we each do well, to truly make a difference. We work with Mercy Care to give our guests access to medical care.  We work with Georgia Law Center to give our guests access to legal assistance.  We can’t do these things alone.

Our mission statement guides all of the work we do. Anytime we are thinking about making a change to our programs or services, I ask myself if the change will allow us to carry out our mission.  In addition to our mission, we have also recently developed core values and tenets for our organization.  I wanted our team to have some guiding principles for our work and for who we are as an organization. The team sat down over a year ago with our Board Chair, Jeff Hilimire. He led us through an exercise to  help us get at the heart of who we are as an organization serving those experiencing homelessness.

We developed three tenets that defines the work we do:

We open doors to overcome and prevent homelessness by:

  • empowering our guests to take the next step toward self-sufficiency.
  • passionately and intentionally telling our guests’ stories to educate others.
  • ensuring we have the resources to be at our best.

In addition to our tenets, we developed four core values:

We believe in meeting people where they are with patience and humility and treating each person with respect and dignity.  

I firmly believe that if you sit down and observe with one of our staff or volunteers while they serve our guests, you will see each person living out our values. These values are critical in creating trust with our guests, which I believe to be the first step in helping someone overcome homelessness.

The issue of homelessness is complicated. Many barriers exist. There is no easy fix. It takes time. It takes relationship building. It takes navigating through difficult processes and systems. It takes resources. Unfortunately, it’s the resources that are often the barrier to doing more for those experiencing homelessness. Non-profits like Central OAC  regularly struggle to find foundations, government monies, and individual donors to continually support the good work that is done on a daily basis. Central OAC has had its ups and downs in the funding arena and certainly one of my biggest tasks as the Executive Director is to make sure the monies continue to come in to support the programs and services we offer.

As a result, I will keep telling our story and our guests’ stories because I know that we can make a difference. I know that we can continue to open doors to overcome and prevent homelessness. For those of you who already support us, thank you. For those who may want to get more involved, let’s talk. Your support will go a long way to ensure that our staff and volunteers are able to continue the good work that has already begun!

 

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Hearing Mr. K

Hearing Mr. K

by April Campbell

Brenna, our Program Assistant, has asked the staff and volunteers at the OAC to write down any interactions that have somehow affected us so that we may share it with everyone via social media. While thinking about what to write for this month’s blog, I thought about her request and reflected on an interaction that I had with a guest last week.

Mr. K came in on snowy Friday morning asking for assistance with getting his food stamps turned back on. Mr. K became argumentative with myself and our security guard, Larry, and was being asked to leave and come back a different day. Mr. K looked at me with tears in his eyes and said that he was “tired of being treated as less than a person” and that “today has already been such a hard day”. Mr. K become unconsolable so I asked him to come into the art room with me to talk while myself and another guest assisted him with gathering his things. Mr. K followed me to the room where we had a conversation surrounding his mental health diagnosis, his feelings of frustration and insignificance, and how he has been living in his situation since 2006 and feels as though he cannot get the assistance he needs. I was able to spend about 20 minutes with Mr. K and during that time I was reminded that every person has their own story and is dealing with their own struggles. In the work that we do this is so important to remember.

Some days at the OAC are more difficult than others. Sometimes there is so much chaos and confusion happening that I find myself being distracted by everything else and forgetting what drew me here in the first place: to help people. Helping someone doesn’t just mean listening to their problem, finding a solution, and sending them out our doors. Helping them means actually hearing them: hearing their frustration, their pain, their struggle and their sadness: Their Story. It’s about hearing what they may not be saying and being understanding that they are dealing with situations that I cannot even imagine. My interaction with Mr. K caused me to remember that every person I meet at the OAC has their own unique story and that it takes me hearing them with open ears and an open heart to hear what that story is.

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6 Reasons People Experiencing Homelessness Can’t Find Jobs

by Ahren Cassinari-Foster

There are many reasons both individual and systemic why our guests struggle to find jobs, but here are six of the biggest reasons why many of our guests have a difficult time finding satisfying, long-term employment.  This is not an exhaustive list, but I hope it opens a window into the reality our guests live with on a day-to-day basis.

1. Incarceration history.  Whatever the offense, having a recent criminal charge is a huge disadvantage when searching for employment.  Our guests are often faced with a very difficult choice: hide the offense and hope it does not come up in the background check (knowing you will be fired if the offense is discovered) or disclose the offense and hope for an understanding interviewer/HR department.

2. Gaps in employment.  For a wide variety of reasons, many of our guests have significant gaps in their work history.  These gaps are quite challenging to explain in an interview, complicate the process of resume –writing, and sometimes raise real concerns on the part of hiring managers.

3. Storage.  In my experience, not many people have thought about how a lack of proper storage can cost someone a job.  If a guest is carrying all of her worldly goods around in a pack, what is she supposed to do when it comes time to interview?   Does she leave the pack in a park?  With a friend?  Carry the pack to the interview and hope for the best?

4. Lack of educational opportunities.  Many of our guests have a fairly limited educational background and have not had ready access to the education and training that opens doors to higher-paying, stable jobs.   The lack of stability in both living situation and income that many of our guests live with makes the idea of completing a two semester course in arc welding at a local tech school a seemingly impossible dream.

5. Access to hygiene items and interview clothing.  Living outside, or in a shelter that is not a large upgrade over the street, affords people few opportunities to groom themselves on a regular basis.  Most people do not feel confident approaching a job search when they are unable to bathe on a regular basis and have no access to interview clothing.

6. Limited access to computers.  Many people in today’s world can take for granted 24/7 access to the technology they need to communicate, work, connect with friends, and do so many other things .  The vast majority of our guests do not have anything close to that level of access to computers, smart phones, or tablets.  They can access the internet on a restricted basis only when the local library has a free computer or one of the few computers in their shelter or transitional housing facility is available for use.

Despite these challenges, many of our guests do find jobs!  I am continuously challenged and inspired by folks who, despite a long list of setbacks and roadblocks, find a way to make their job search work through their determination and focus.

To learn more about our Main Frame Job Readiness program and the ways it helps remove these barriers, click here.

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Finding Thin Places

by Brenna Lakeson

When I was in seminary, we would often talk about “thin places” –  a phrase used by Irish priest John O’Donohue among others – to identify moments when the barrier between our earthly reality and the holy realm beyond seems to disintegrate.  A thin place might be as simple as seeing the sun rise or as poignant as watching a child be born.  A thin place is a moment where the boundary between yourself and God feels nonexistent, when the holy reaches out and touches you in a real way.  

At the OAC, it can sometimes be difficult to find thin places.  It can be loud and chaotic.  Sometimes our guests are angry and yell, albeit for warranted reasons.  Sometimes our guests are so tired of the brokenness they feel.  On the other hand, though, thin places are all around us at the OAC: a guest letting a stranger borrow his phone to call home, a whole line of able bodied individuals letting a lady in a wheelchair cut in line.  I want to share some of the thin places that I’ve been honored to bear witness to at the OAC, in the hopes that all of us will look for the thin places instead of the broken ones.

 

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Paul

Recently, I woke up in the morning with a pulled neck muscle.  It was hard for me to turn my head side to side. I did stretches at my desk during the day to try to get some mobility back.  I apologized to each guest I met with, so they wouldn’t think that I was purposefully not looking in their direction.  One guest in particular, “Paul”, took an interest in my neck injury.  “That happened to me a while back,” he said.  “You gotta do your stretches.  And get some Bengay to put on there.  That’ll do the trick.”  Again on his way out, he reminded me to get some Bengay to relieve my pain.  

About a week later, Paul joined our Main Frame program, and I saw him at the OAC one afternoon.  “How’s your neck doing?” he called after me.  I smiled.  “It’s doing so much better, thank you for remembering!” I responded.  With all that Paul had to worry about, he managed to remember my insignificant pulled muscle and wanted to know if I was doing okay.  Whenever guests take the time to care for our staff and volunteers, I am always touched.

 

Mr. Peters

Last week, I worked with “Mr. Peters.” Mr. Peters was the first guest I served that morning.  I was tired and wasn’t feeling very energetic.  I just wanted to do my job and get through the list of guests without too much fuss.  Mr. Peters, however, wasn’t having it.  First thing, he asked me how I was doing on a scale of 1 to 10.  He told me he was an 8.5.  I told him I was about a 7, and he said he was determined to get me to at least an 8 by the time he left.  When I asked him why he wanted to get a Georgia ID, he told me he needed it to give blood.  Each time I smiled during our interaction, he would say “Are you at an 8 now?”.  On his way out, I asked him if he needed any toiletries or snacks.  He told me he didn’t want to take any because he wanted to save them for the “people who really need them.”  He was, however, very excited to share some salt water taffy with me.  

Despite his circumstances, Mr. Peters consistently found joy around him, even in some salt water taffy.  What’s more, all he wanted was to use his abilities to make other people smile.  After our meeting, he met with our representative from Social Security to apply for SSI benefits.  It was clear to me that Mr. Peters didn’t have much going for him.  Despite seeming like a nice grandfather, he didn’t seem to have any family that was supportive.  But he made everyone he met feel like family.  Despite not having any financial resources, he wanted to give what he did have – blood.  Meeting with Mr. Peters forced me to check my own feelings at the door.  I had come to work grumpy, but Mr. Peters had come to our center full of joy to share.

 

Jamal

Several months ago, I worked with “Jamal.”  Jamal had nothing but the clothes on his back, and we were helping him get a Georgia ID.  I gave him some of the donated clothes in one of our back rooms, and he was beyond grateful.  On his way out, he asked if we had a comb.  I told him that we didn’t.  He wanted to comb out the braids in his hair to re-style it, but we didn’t have anything to offer him.  He went on his way, and I didn’t think much of it.  

However, about an hour later, I walked through our lobby only to catch a glimpse of Jamal sitting on the ground with one of our female guests squatting behind him, combing out his hair for him and re-braiding it.  This moment has stuck with me in an indescribable way.  These two guests, arguably some of our loudest and, at times, challenging guests, were taking care of each other.  Like two children at a sleepover, they were chatting and braiding hair as though they had nothing else to worry about.  I watched them for a few minutes, sharing stories and relaxing in the courtyard.  It touched my heart to see our guests caring for each other in such an intimate way.

 

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Our guests deal with more on a daily basis than many of us face in a lifetime.  However, every day we see them reach outside of themselves and care for those around them.  In circumstances where they have every reason to be selfish, they somehow find the strength to show compassion and kindness in often unexpected ways.  In the midst of suffering, they recognize suffering in others.  In the midst of trauma, they recognize the needs of others.  There is great holiness in this, and also a wholeness:  when we care for others, even when we are hurting, it helps us heal.