One of Thanksgiving week’s highlights was helping a long-time guest of our drop-in center to clean up, get off the streets and enter an in-house substance recovery program. We transported him to get his required medical clearance, gave him fresh donated clothing and provided him with a one-night motel stay to clean up and prepare for the program’s intake. The photo is our client and his daughter who came to help send-off her dad. After completion of the recovery program, our client will be eligible for housing assistance to help keep him clean and safe.
Our chef and her team of 40 volunteers cooked and served traditional Thanksgiving meals to 215 guests, of whom 24 were new, at yesterday’s drop-in community center. Many of the volunteers were our valued regulars, as well as several students from CSULB.
Some of our clients came to ask us to help them in their quest for permanent housing. Several clients were grateful to be given Long Beach transit bus passes. All of our guests were encouraged to take away a bounty of bread, fruit and salads. Additionally, most everyone received newly donated warm clothes, shoes, blankets and/or toiletries.
We were happy to provide one of our recently housed clients (2nd photo) with dishware and bedding from our storage unit.
All of us at Urban Community Outreach are thankful for your donations that have allowed us to feed our clients, provide computer services, host our volunteer nurse and doctor, help clients access a variety of services and assist in the process of acquiring and moving into permanent housing.
Although UCO has touched over 5,000 people at our drop-in center, we know that we must do more to reduce homelessness in our community.
This Giving Tuesday please consider making a year-end gift to UCO on-line through our website https://www.ucodic.org/donate/
On behalf of the UCO Board, staff, volunteers and clients, thank you for your ongoing support!
One last note – if anyone would like to bake banana breads, we have lots of very ripe bananas in the refrigerator at the church. Please let me know and I will meet you there and give you the bananas.