Severe Weather Shelter Network has been selected as one of 40 organizations in Colorado for the 40 HANDS in forty days campaign. This unique campaign elevates 40 organizations that are making a significant impact in their community through the work they do.
Over the last six years I have watched volunteers become a bit disheartened because we tend to shelter the same folks each year. We have a core group now of about 150 individuals that we have welcomed on shelter nights since we began. This can be hard. We want these folks to make a change. We want them to be safe all the time, not just on shelter nights.
The truth is there will always be a need for emergency shelter. There will always be some of our guests who are completely surrendered to the addiction that holds them in chains. Our task is to continue to love them as they are.
On a brighter note, Severe Weather Shelter Network is always looking for ways to connect in the broader community to make it easier for folks to take necessary steps when they are ready to do so. The path has been broken and the gaps are many, but I want to celebrate that there is a growing hope for those people whom we love.
Severe Weather Shelter Network is a member of Change The Trend in Englewood. This group of organizations and agencies have been working hard in the last year to put together and implement a Resource Navigation program that brings the best of each organization together to create a pathway out of homelessness. In 2018 there were 16 individuals that made it off the streets through this Resource Navigation program. Change The Trend has set a goal this year to walk 30 individuals off the streets. We are well on our way!
Severe Weather Shelter Network is a member of the Heading Home Collaboration in Jefferson County. We celebrate that they are intentionally working together with the County, Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge and Golden to ask how we might work together to address homelessness regionally. Progress is slow…but it is happening!
So…put your HANDS up and say YES! Together we can make a difference in the communities in which we live. Visit 40HANDSinfortydays.org and be counted today!