The 2017 Shari Prestemon Social Justice Interns have graciously agreed to share their experiences with all of us. From time to time, we’ll be posting ‘journal entries’ from Naiomi Gonzalez and Katy Morton. Below is one of these entries.
Open Doors.
This week, we had the opportunity to meet with several of the agencies that Back Bay Mission helped to found and get off their feet over the years. One of them, Loaves and Fishes, is a soup kitchen that offers two meals per day, as well as connections to other needed social services. As we journeyed to Loaves and Fishes from Back Bay, Kenney explained that we were driving the route that many of the homeless individuals in the community utilized as a walking route between the two agencies. Although Back Bay is able to offer many direct services to the homeless and low income populations in the area, they do not offer hot meals to the community. Loaves and Fishes has a small, but dedicated, staff who work tirelessly with a crew of alternating volunteers to ensure that the homeless and low income community are able to have a hot meal almost every day of the week. As we listened, observed, and learned more about what Loaves and Fishes does in the community, it was once again abundantly clear just how much the community in Biloxi and Gulfport works together to offer a hand up to those in need.
Another agency we had the opportunity to meet with this week was the Open Doors Homeless Coalition. We were lucky enough to be able to attend the Open Doors Homeless Coalition monthly meeting with Kenney, Anne, Deborah, and Roxanne earlier this month, but it was very cool to actually be able to see the agency and meet the staff who is working to connect members of the community with rental and housing assistance. One of the tasks Naiomi and I continue to help with as the staff needs and our schedule permits is answering phone calls and working at the front desk. Each hour at the front desk, we answer roughly 10-15 calls and walk-ins about rental assistance. Back Bay used to provide rental assistance directly, on a limited basis, as budget and funding would allow. A few other agencies in the area followed the same system. Several years ago, the community and social service agencies decided to go in another direction and Open Doors Homeless Coalition was founded with the mission to work to end homelessness in the community. Agencies that work with Open Doors, such as Back Bay, field calls from the community and refer them to Open Doors for assistance with rentals, deposits, and housing. When an individual calls Open Doors, their case information is received and a needs assessment is completed. Once all this is done, Open Doors calls the community agency they feel can best assist the client and sets up an appointment with the client and a caseworker. At Back Bay, the caseworker who assists with this program through the ESG Grant is Loretta, and she is a very busy lady. During our first week at Back Bay, Naiomi and I attended a site visit with Loretta for a client to move into a new apartment home with her family. Loretta explained the steps of the housing process with ease, and works each day to ensure that her clients get housed and stay housed. It is so awesome to be able to see how a process works from start to finish, and to be aware of all the steps in between.
In the upcoming weeks, we have plans to meet with the staff of other agencies that Back Bay has had a hand in getting started. As we continue to assist in the office, food pantry, and day center, it is so cool to be able to see all of the other agencies working together with Back Bay to improve the community. Whether it is a roof repair, food and utility assistance, housing and rental assistance, help getting necessary documents/IDs/food stamps, a hot meal, medications and medical care, counseling or referrals, or just a smile and a kind word, it is clear that Back Bay, along with all of the agencies it works in conjunction with, are committed to working together to improve the community.
