Thursday, December 07, 2006
Be a shelter volunteer for the Homeless
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Although our lives have radically changed as the result of the events of 9/11, one thing remains constant: the need for night shelter for the homeless of our city increases. This neighborhood should feel proud. We are the best, the kindest, the cream. We live in one of the most socially caring and hospitable areas of the city, and we support not only 10 hospitals, 8 methadone clinics, 2 major city homeless shelters and a big welfare office, but also several church- and synagogue-based overnight stay facilities.
These facilities are run quietly, without disturbance to the neighborhood, yet they provide a palpable service to the needy. How do they work? Well, there is an organization, The Partnership for the Homeless, started in 1982. It helps to get the non-vagrant type homeless, men and women, off the streets of NYC, and into drop-in centers, where they are screened and tested (all tubercular persons are sent to therapy), medically cared for, given meals, sent to rehabilitation training and transported at night to shelters, in churches, synagogues and armories.
This is paid for by private donations as well as city, state and federal funds.The Partnership takes care of 1200 men and women, utilizing 10 drop-in centers and it calls on 105 shelter facilities, in all 5 boroughs. Seven of the drop-in centers are in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn and one in Staten Island. The guests in our shelters either have become homeless involuntarily - they were burned out or lost their jobs - or can no longer take care of themselves in low pay jobs, such as dishwashers, kitchen help, casual labor, because housing costs too much. Some have addiction, physical or mental problems. For the rehabilitable our efforts can and do lead to return to the mainstream, for the sick - to eventual permanent housing. The Partnership has located housing for more than 300 individuals and families a year, and provided furniture.
Getting back to the call for action, in this immediate area we have four volunteer-staffed overnight shelters, all non-sectarian, each accepting 8-15 homeless guests a night - Brotherhood Synagogue (Leah Glasser or Peggy Keilus 674-5750), St. George's Church (John Hackney 646-541-5830), the Friends' Meeting House (Sylvia Friedman 673-8316) and the Madison Avenue Baptist Church (Melvin Bell 685-1377). Friends' and St. George's shelters are year-round. They all need volunteer workers - male and female - to stay overnight with their homeless guests, once a month or more frequently, or to be part of the welcoming crew. The work is simple, non-hazardous and very gratifying. I shall describe the procedure at Brotherhood.
The guests sign up for a shelter at the drop-in center, and are transported by a city school bus, which delivers them, with a checklist, to the church or synagogue, between 8 and 9 PM. The volunteers, a coordinator and a sexton will have set up cots (fresh linen every night), sandwiches and coffee, and will welcome the guests, who are usually tired, want to wash themselves, have a bite and go to bed after the meal, before the 11 PM lights-out. One or two volunteers - plus the sexton - sleep in the shelter overnight, separate from the guests. The volunteers are there to provide assistance in cases of need. At the Brotherhood Synagogue shelter I recall no more than four instances over 23 years that the volunteers had to obtain help for a guest with a problem during the night, none threatening. Between 6 and 6:30 AM the volunteers will make toast and serve, with tea or coffee. By 7 AM the volunteers will have gone home or to work, after the guests have been picked up by the city and returned to the drop-in center.
Most overnight volunteers, working people, come to work at the shelter at 8 PM in their sweat clothes or dungarees and carry a dress or suit for use next day, if they are going to work directly. They have a full night's sleep, and no one has ever complained of having been ruined for the next day's activities. On the contrary, this has been a heartening experience for the volunteers, an opportunity to do good, hands on. It is not like giving $50 to a charity, good but indirect. Talking with and cheering up people who have less than we gives us an opportunity to assess our place in the sun.
Volunteers come back time and again because doing good feels good. We are not just chessboard figures, we do things, we make good things happen. Call the shelter providers, try volunteering for one night. You will find out what life is like, out there, hear stories that make the listener appreciate one's own life.
Wally Dobelis has been an elected member in the Partnership for the Homeless, and for the past 23 years has been the coordinator of volunteers for the Brotherhood Synagogue shelter. He and the T&V family wish you a happy belated Thanksgiving, merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, a glorious Kwanzaa and good health and happiness for the coming New Year.
Although our lives have radically changed as the result of the events of 9/11, one thing remains constant: the need for night shelter for the homeless of our city increases. This neighborhood should feel proud. We are the best, the kindest, the cream. We live in one of the most socially caring and hospitable areas of the city, and we support not only 10 hospitals, 8 methadone clinics, 2 major city homeless shelters and a big welfare office, but also several church- and synagogue-based overnight stay facilities.
These facilities are run quietly, without disturbance to the neighborhood, yet they provide a palpable service to the needy. How do they work? Well, there is an organization, The Partnership for the Homeless, started in 1982. It helps to get the non-vagrant type homeless, men and women, off the streets of NYC, and into drop-in centers, where they are screened and tested (all tubercular persons are sent to therapy), medically cared for, given meals, sent to rehabilitation training and transported at night to shelters, in churches, synagogues and armories.
This is paid for by private donations as well as city, state and federal funds.The Partnership takes care of 1200 men and women, utilizing 10 drop-in centers and it calls on 105 shelter facilities, in all 5 boroughs. Seven of the drop-in centers are in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn and one in Staten Island. The guests in our shelters either have become homeless involuntarily - they were burned out or lost their jobs - or can no longer take care of themselves in low pay jobs, such as dishwashers, kitchen help, casual labor, because housing costs too much. Some have addiction, physical or mental problems. For the rehabilitable our efforts can and do lead to return to the mainstream, for the sick - to eventual permanent housing. The Partnership has located housing for more than 300 individuals and families a year, and provided furniture.
Getting back to the call for action, in this immediate area we have four volunteer-staffed overnight shelters, all non-sectarian, each accepting 8-15 homeless guests a night - Brotherhood Synagogue (Leah Glasser or Peggy Keilus 674-5750), St. George's Church (John Hackney 646-541-5830), the Friends' Meeting House (Sylvia Friedman 673-8316) and the Madison Avenue Baptist Church (Melvin Bell 685-1377). Friends' and St. George's shelters are year-round. They all need volunteer workers - male and female - to stay overnight with their homeless guests, once a month or more frequently, or to be part of the welcoming crew. The work is simple, non-hazardous and very gratifying. I shall describe the procedure at Brotherhood.
The guests sign up for a shelter at the drop-in center, and are transported by a city school bus, which delivers them, with a checklist, to the church or synagogue, between 8 and 9 PM. The volunteers, a coordinator and a sexton will have set up cots (fresh linen every night), sandwiches and coffee, and will welcome the guests, who are usually tired, want to wash themselves, have a bite and go to bed after the meal, before the 11 PM lights-out. One or two volunteers - plus the sexton - sleep in the shelter overnight, separate from the guests. The volunteers are there to provide assistance in cases of need. At the Brotherhood Synagogue shelter I recall no more than four instances over 23 years that the volunteers had to obtain help for a guest with a problem during the night, none threatening. Between 6 and 6:30 AM the volunteers will make toast and serve, with tea or coffee. By 7 AM the volunteers will have gone home or to work, after the guests have been picked up by the city and returned to the drop-in center.
Most overnight volunteers, working people, come to work at the shelter at 8 PM in their sweat clothes or dungarees and carry a dress or suit for use next day, if they are going to work directly. They have a full night's sleep, and no one has ever complained of having been ruined for the next day's activities. On the contrary, this has been a heartening experience for the volunteers, an opportunity to do good, hands on. It is not like giving $50 to a charity, good but indirect. Talking with and cheering up people who have less than we gives us an opportunity to assess our place in the sun.
Volunteers come back time and again because doing good feels good. We are not just chessboard figures, we do things, we make good things happen. Call the shelter providers, try volunteering for one night. You will find out what life is like, out there, hear stories that make the listener appreciate one's own life.
Wally Dobelis has been an elected member in the Partnership for the Homeless, and for the past 23 years has been the coordinator of volunteers for the Brotherhood Synagogue shelter. He and the T&V family wish you a happy belated Thanksgiving, merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, a glorious Kwanzaa and good health and happiness for the coming New Year.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 4:07 PM 
