Close to Home: Thankful for those who build bridges

Committee on the Shelterless started small back in 1988. There were many homeless people in the south county and few dollars with which to help them. We’ve always had to “work smarter,” leveraging research and resources, incubating ideas, involving volunteers in providing services, seeking client feedback and collaborating with other service providers.

If another agency had a better program, we borrowed from it - and credited its originator. If research pointed to an effective practice, we adopted it. If volunteers could do a job well, we recruited them. Over the ensuing decades, our lean style helped us serve a growing number of clients from all over the county, people who contend with a variety of issues, including low wages, unemployment, addiction, disabilities and personal demons.

Instead of building moats, we build bridges.

Last year, I reported to readers our vision to build on our collaborative, results-focused style to end homelessness among children and veterans in Sonoma County. Today, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, I am grateful to be able to report banner results - benefiting not just our clients but the community at large.

This summer, we opened the only emergency shelter for children and families in the south county. Now, when south county families face disaster, their children don’t have to experience the trauma of being uprooted from their community, school, sports teams and friends. Half of the beds in the shelter are reserved for families referred by Child Protective Services. CPS sends us families without open cases, who are living in situations that could become risky for their children.

While at the shelter, parents work to increase and stabilize their income, hone their parenting skills and look for housing. Children benefit from our strong relationship to Petaluma schools and our nurturing, skilled staff. The shelter allows us to increase the number of families we serve by 300 percent.

This year we also partnered with Mentor Me to recruit 80 new volunteer mentors and ensure that every child at COTS has the opportunity to develop a nurturing relationship with a mentor. Research shows that mentoring increases a child’s capacity for resilience. Mentor Me is a Petaluma nonprofit that pairs kids with adult volunteers who listen to them and coach them about effective coping skills.

Like any startup, we had a lot of trial and error in our early days. But it doesn’t have to be that way for newer agencies. We’re now sharing all of our programs and practices with North Sonoma County Services in Healdsburg so that they can expand and improve services smoothly. Right now the agency serves 43 children and their parents, but, because of the area’s affordable rental crisis, the need for their services is increasing. Starting from scratch in Healdsburg would have easily cost a quarter of a million dollars. We’re providing expertise and training for a fraction of that cost.

Veterans are already well represented in our permanent supportive housing programs, but, given that one out of every eight homeless men in this county is a veteran, we knew we had to do more. This month, we put the finishing touches on a home in east Petaluma and opened it to five homeless veterans referred by the Veterans Resource Center. This is the first of five homes that we’ll provide for veterans in the south county in collaboration with VRC.

Our sister agency will provide support and services to the vets, and we’ll open our kitchen and classrooms for our new residents. Separately, our two agencies couldn’t have provided this level of support. Together, we’ll give back to those who served by housing more than 25 veterans.

This Thanksgiving, I give thanks that because of our donors’ generosity, and our partners’ willingness to collaborate, more children are safe and more veterans are sleeping in their own beds.

Mike Johnson is CEO of the Committee on the Shelterless based in Petaluma.