2007 in Review
People Served
During 2007 we kept track of all the people we served on a per month basis. So, every month a person may be counted. I was able to find 6 months worth of records, so I doubled the number for the estimate for the year. All the months were fairly close to each other in the number of people served, and what services we were able to do. So I felt comfortable making this assumption.
Over the course of 2007 we were able to serve 438 people (each person may be counted once per month), however, in the 6 months that I have records for, there were 140 unique people that we came in contact with. 268 males and 170 females were given food, clothes, transportation or housing assistance.
Needs Met
While meeting people and building relationships with them, there are needs that we have the opportunity to meet. The chart to the right, shows what services we gave out for the year. Each time we gave out a bag of food or article of clothing to a person it was counted. These numbers are an estimate, as we do not have the time or capacity to track everything we do. However, these numbers are close, as we try to the best of our ability to write down when we give something out.
Food and clothing are the similest needs for us to meet. We get many donations of clothes and food that we are able to pass out. Bus passes are another way we are able to help people out, and we give away a fair amount of them during the year so people will be able to get to their appointments and go about their life.
Note on the Pie Chart: Please remember that this chart is a count of the services we gave out during the past year. It does not show what the needs are of the people we serve accurately. The biggest needs we see are jobs and affordable housing. However, these things are above what we are capable of doing in our current position.
Highlights from the year:
Throughout the year we were able accomplish a lot. One of the goals of the 1304 house is to get the Church involved in the work we are doing. We were blessed to have Shoreline Covenant Church's High School group come spend a weekend with us serving, as well as two youth groups from Oregon. The kids that spent time with us on these weekends went away with new knowledge and abilities to serve in their communities. They got to experience the challenges of serving.
Throughout the year we partnered with Operation Nightwatch and were able to go down and serve a meal there every other month. We also partnered with HomeStep to turn one of the Church owned houses into a transitional house with case management for the family. We look forward to seeing how God will use this partnership in the future.
Challenges:
There were many challenges this year that we went through. The little house next door that the church has owned for many years, we have started to use as a Transitional house. Our first experience started good, we were happy we were able to get a gentleman out of the motels and into something cheaper so he could save for the future. This failed after a little while, he moved out without telling anyone. We realized we didn't have the knowledge to use the house as a transitional house. So we partnered with HomeStep, and they have started to use the house for transitional housing, complete with case worker.
It has been a tough year for people we have gotten close with. It has been hard to see good friends make bad decisions. We have had a fair amount of people come and go. Some have left for good reasons, some have just left and some have left for bad reasons. It is always hard to say goodbye, but it has been hard on us to just have people disappear.
As a group, we have gotten to be quite busy and we have had to make some changes to accomedate our busy lives. We started house hours in the evenings, so there is a time when people on the street know that someone will be there. We all work and/or go to school and we have had to deal with how to balance our lives. This has been particularly difficult during winter, when it isn't light out as much and we can't get out after work.
2008 - What is ahead?
I do not know what lies ahead, but there are many things that I would like to see happen in the coming year. I would like to see us be able to host a few church groups (both SCC and Others). I would like to see the ministry be able to continue to grow (read: meet more needs), involve more people and touch more lives.