Project Homeless Connect
Project Homeless Connect is an event where service providers volunteer their time and energy to provide essential services to people who are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. The services provided have previously included dental care, disability services, foreclosure assistance, and emergency shelter placement. For a more in-depth breakdown of the services provided, please visit the the statistics page.
The Project Homeless Connect model, as described below, was initiated in Buffalo on July 17, 2009. The event was extremely successful, providing essential services to over four hundred people who were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The second annual Project Homeless Connect was held on November 17, 2010. The event was a great success and nearly three hundred people, homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in the Buffalo winter, received essential services at no cost. The Project Homeless Connect Planning Committee is in the process of planning the third annual Project Homeless Connect which will be held on September 19, 2011
Project Homeless Connect Buffalo is held at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center in Downtown Buffalo, New York. The event would not be possible without the gracious help of our sponsors.
Project Homeless Connect fuses political and civic will in a one-day, one-stop array of resources which focuses on immediacy, hospitality, and results for homeless neighbors.
Project Homeless Connect is equal parts welcoming homeless neighbors into the life of the community, changing the way resources are accessed, and achieving quantifiable results for people experiencing homelessness.
Project Homeless Connect events vary in size, content and frequency in each area, but share a common intent – to welcome homeless neighbors back into the community. The “under one roof” offerings for consumers and the “mobile hospitality” of volunteers who act as escorts and conductors for their homeless neighbors help lower their barriers and achieve results. Events catalyze community involvement, generating new partnerships, commitment, and investment to end homelessness. Project Homeless Connect gives people and organizations that have never been involved in homelessness a way to make a difference in their community.
Project Homeless Connect is intended to change how business is done in local communities when it comes to expediting outcomes, lowering barriers, removing obstacles, and increasing results. Public and private sector resource providers work side-by-side in a new configuration, with a focus on problem-solving and results.
From its origins in San Francisco, this innovative project has evolved to meet each communityÂ’s needs. Through building on models of response to Katrina and Stand Downs for veterans, Project Homeless Connect has been identified by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness as an innovation that can move people more quickly toward housing and stability and furthers the goals of community 10 Year Plans to end homelessness. With encouragement and technical assistance from the Council, more than 200 communities, large and small, in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, have now adopted Project Homeless Connect in less than three years.
For more information about this national initiative please visit www.usich.gov
