I’m Nicole Lescher and I’m a Case Manager at Hospitality House, setting goals with clients to help them transition from homelessness to housing.
I am so happy to share the story of a client, I will call Johnny, who is moving into housing today! He came to the shelter in July after fleeing an unsafe environment, leaving him homeless for the first time in his life as a young man. We soon connected him to resources in the area, including Friendship Club, FREED Center for Independent Living and Alta Regional, who works with individuals with developmental disabilities. Further, we supported Johnny to enroll at Sierra College, connected him with a local therapist and assisted him to work with a Payee service to manage his disability funds. Our community came together to wraparound Johnny and get him back on his feet. Alta Regional found a housing lead for him which we jumped on and brought Johnny to see the room, which he loved. Yesterday I took him to Restart Ministries in Auburn where Johnny got to pick out furniture, a bed, desk and kitchenware for his new home. This was a lot of fun to help him pick out things for his new chapter in life. Johnny is a talented artist and has a bright future ahead of him, and although he came to the shelter with nothing but a backpack, he is moving into his first house today with wraparound support from multiple community agencies. After leaving the studio this morning, I am picking him up to bring him home. So here’s to Johnny and may he find much happiness in the next chapter in his life!
Empty Bowl event is back on Saturday, March 14! Our favorite artist-driven event returns this March with bowls aplenty. Every year, artists around Nevada County come together to create handcrafted bowls that are then filled with soup for our patrons. Sharing a simple meal of soup together is an opportunity for the community to express its compassion for those struggling with homelessness.
All sales and donations at the event will help people transition from homelessness to housing. Tickets are on sale now and are expected to sell out! You can purchase your tickets at hhshelter.org, Bread & Roses Thrift and More or BriarPatch Food Co-op. A big thank you to AJA Video Systems and Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital for being sponsors this year.
This past week, we were blessed by many caring individuals and I’d like to give a big thank you to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Twin Cities Church, Trinity Church – Episcopal: Historic Faith for Modern People, Mountain Stream Meditation Center Kitchen KutUps, The Home Team and Repeat Offenders for coming out to cook. To everyone who donated our most needed items last week, thank you as well!
Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the shelter for this week…
• Men’s jeans sizes, 34-38
• Gloves
• Belts
• Coffee
• Sugar
• Granola bars
• Band-Aids
• Hand warmers
• Twin Sheets
• Twin blankets
Please drop off urgent items to Utah’s Place, located in Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way. If we all stick together, we’ll all get what we need. Thank you!