As reported on KVMR, April 12:
Hospitality House is the only emergency homeless shelter in Nevada County, with 69 beds for homeless men, women and children.
I’m Joe Naake and I’m the Supervising Outreach Case Manager at Hospitality House. I oversee teams that work in the field to help homeless individuals in camps and on the streets get connected to services. Getting someone connected to services is a highly collaborative process and we work with several nonprofits and agencies, including Nevada County Behavioral Health, Turning Point, Spirit Peer Empowerment and even local law enforcement.
One service we began offering back in October is transportation—made possible by United Way of Nevada County and County of Nevada. It may sound basic but providing transportation has been highly impactful in its first 6 months. As an example, our driver Suzanne met a homeless woman I’ll call Sherry who just needed help getting from Point A to Point B. But our assistance changed when Suzanne discovered one day that Sherry had been beaten in her homeless camp and the same assailant subsequently burned down her only home … a tent.
She was traumatized and didn’t know what to do, but Suzanne did. Suzanne drove Sherry to Community Beyond Violence in Grass Valley. We’re happy to report that Community Beyond Violence helped Sherry get into a safehouse.
If we never offered transportation, we might not have met Sherry and Sherry’s story may ended much differently, but generous community partners and individuals make what we do possible.
I ask you now, if you’d like to support our outreach services and transportation, that you make a gift to help more people like Sherry today at hhshelter.org, and if you can’t give financially, giving your time is also valuable and helps further our mission. Volunteer opportunities can be explored in detail on our website.
One area for volunteering we always need help is our thrift store, Bread & Roses Thrift and More. The store is only in operation to support our homeless shelter and if you’ve never stopped by, I encourage you to visit next Tuesday. Every Tuesday, the store offers Thankful Tuesday, giving 10% off to seniors, veterans, active military, law enforcement and first responders. It’s a great store to shop for deals and a great place to volunteer.
Our volunteer cook teams are also the best. I’d like to thank Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Grass Valley United Methodist Church in partnership with Grass Valley Friends Meeting, St. Patrick’s Church, the E-Team, Kitchen KutUps, the Home Team, and Repeat Offenders for feeding our shelter this week—thank you!
To everyone who dropped off needed items last week—we thank you as well! Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the shelter for this week…
- Men’s large size jackets
- Large and XL t-shirts for men
- Large and XL sweaters/hoodies for men
- Men’s pants, sizes 30, 32, 34 (the most needed size) and 36
- Warm blankets
Please drop off these urgent items to Utah’s Place, located in the Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way. For all other donations that may benefit a homeless guest or the shelter in general, please take them to the backdoor of Bread & Roses, our thrift shop, located at 840 E Main Street, directly next door to Sierra Cinemas. Guests at our shelter are given shopping vouchers for the store to buy what they need, so your donation directly helps them. All other items are sold with 100% of the sales supporting the shelter’s operations. Thank you for sticking together so that we all get what we need.