United Way Cascade County is recruiting volunteers to participate in the National Point in Time Homeless count next week, an effort to document the number of people experiencing homelessness in the community.
Justin Robicheau reports - watch the video here:
"The people who are out in the community sleeping under bridges and alleys, that kind of thing, they're a little harder to locate. And so we organize these teams to go out, canvas those areas, try to get as accurate a count as we possibly can," said Gary Owen, United Way of Cascade County president.
"Those trainings will basically help volunteers understand, their role, how to conduct the count. And then everything is done on an app where they'll be able to do it on their phone or tablet. It calculates all of the information tabulates everything," Owen said.
The collected data allows United Way to analyze trends in homelessness within the community.
"It gives us an opportunity to look at trends, to see our, you know, number of homelessness, people experiencing homelessness, increasing, decreasing, staying the same. So it gives us some data to, to base some of our efforts off of," Owen said.
Owen emphasized that the information helps the community better understand and address the underlying causes of homelessness.
"Homelessness is a reflection of affordable housing. It's a reflection of issues like mental healthcare, substance abuse disorders. And so as we get a better understanding of how that's impacting our community, it allows us to address those issues, to try to get in front of some of it," Owen said.
Volunteer Requirements & Schedule:
- Attend one training: Monday, Jan. 26 at 11:00am or Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 11:00am
- Thursday, Jan. 29 at 3:30pm: Meet at NeighborWorks GF to prepare supply bags
- Conduct the count: Thursday, Jan. 29 (5–8pm) or Friday, Jan. 30 (5:30–8:30am)
For more information, call Owen at 406-799-2416 or send an email to go@uwccmt.org.
