I’m Kelly Gallaugher, a licensed clinical social worker for Hospitality House and embedded in the Grass Valley Police Department (GVPD) as one-half of the team known as the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, or Cal-VIP. My partner, Officer Jonathan Brown, and I specifically serve unhoused individuals. My main priority is to increase peaceful and purposeful interactions, to respond to homeless-related calls for service with Officer Brown, and to help homeless individuals transition back into housing through many venues.
There is one gentleman in particular that we have been engaging since June 2021, whom I’ll refer to as Bruno. Bruno is 55 years old and as stubborn as they come; he’s an entrenched outdoorsman and someone who has been living on the streets and in camps for over 30 years. Bruno was introduced to drugs at just 12 years old and was addicted to methamphetamine ever since.
Officer Brown and I frequently engaged Bruno. Over a period of nine months, we connected with Bruno 32 times. Trust building, as you may have gathered, takes time but we are persistent but not pushy. Well, three months ago, at our nine-month mark, we had a breakthrough. Bruno asked for our help in receiving recovery services for his addiction. This is a big deal, especially since Bruno has always considered himself self-sufficient and in no need of any kind of handouts or help.
We immediately connected Bruno to Bill Davis at Hospitality House, who works in outreach and specializes in connecting people to recovery services. Bill helped Bruno enter an in-patient recovery program for 30 days, and once he graduated, Bruno was moved into transitional housing, where he remains today.
This weekend is very exciting for Officer Brown and I as Bruno will celebrate 90 days of sobriety—something that hasn’t happened since he was a child. A ceremony will take place for Bruno this weekend where he’ll receive his 90-day sobriety chip. Bruno is so grateful to our team for never giving up on him that he asked Officer Brown to be the person who gives him the award chip this weekend, which he accepted.
I get chills sharing this story because while housing is always our ultimate goal, we have to celebrate all the wins in between. Now that Bruno is finally stabilizing, he’s eager to return to the workforce and to secure permanent housing. We’d like to thank our community supporters and donors who stand by our efforts to engage those on the streets because without you, our ongoing work and partnerships to expand services wouldn’t be possible. If you’d like to help more people on the street get connected to recovery services, employment, shelter and housing, please consider a gift today.
Related to housing, we’d like to thank each and every person who came forward to help with our Brunswick Commons donation drive this month. Between thoughtful full-unit sponsorships and over 100 items purchased off our Target registry, all 28 of our units will be fully furnished!
A big thank you to all community supporters, donors and advocates and our housing partners: County of Nevada, Regional Housing Authority, City of Grass Valley, Nevada County Behavioral Health and Turning Point. Thank you all for celebrating this incredible milestone!
At this time, I’d like to let people know that our popular Empty Bowl benefit for the shelter is back this September, thanks to generous artists, restaurants and sponsors in the community. Mark your calendars because two weeks from today, tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Aug. 5! Empty Bowl is back in two parts: first, through restaurants, Sept. 9-23 AND second, with an Empty Bowl Art Extravaganza on Saturday, Sept. 24, which is an exclusive opportunity for ticketholders to come together to shop bowls, participate in an auction and raffle, listen to live music and enjoy a no-host happy hour. Learn more about Empty Bowl at hhshelter.org/empty-bowl. We’d like to thank The Union and BriarPatch Food Co-op for being return sponsors again this year.
I’d also like to thank our volunteer food shopper, Hilary Dart, for helping us with shopping needs every Tuesday and thank the Repeat Offenders, who cooked up their delicious ground beef pasta and veggies for all our guests last week. A special thanks also to our partners for providing ongoing food and/or financial support: SPD Markets, BriarPatch Food Co-op, Telestream, Interfaith Food Ministry, the Bishop Store (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nevada City) and Food Bank of Nevada County. To everyone who donated our most needed items last week, thank you as well! Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the week:
- Men’s shorts, t-shirts and underwear (underwear must be new)
- Depends / adult diapers
- Bottled water
- Towels
NEW DONATION HOURS: To streamline our donation process, donations are no longer being accepted at our shelter (unless it’s food). Please drop off items from our needs list on Tuesday OR Thursday, 830am – 5pm at our admin office, located at 488 Crown Point Circle, Suite 100, Grass Valley, Ca 95945 (admin is closed weekends and all major holidays). We greatly appreciate the community’s help at such times of uncertainty. In the words of Utah Phillips, “If we all stick together, we’ll get what we need.” Thank you!