Outreach
What is Outreach?
Outreach programs are responsible for providing essential services to unhoused people throughout the county. Outreach workers build trusting relationships with people and prioritizing basic needs while they coordinate through our system of care and ultimately, through the housing process.
How Does it Work?
Outreach workers address the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness. Here are some examples of services outreach workers can provide:
- Providing water on hot days
- Distributing hygiene services and access to showers
- Driving people to appointments
- Pet care
Addressing immediate needs can also help to build rapport and gain trust, eventually helping people connect with interim shelter and then assist them in accessing permanent housing.
In addition to addressing short term needs, outreach workers often work with individuals on long-term goals. For example:
- Helping people get documents they need for housing
- Connecting people to mainstream benefits like CalFresh, General Relief and Medi-Cal
- Assisting people with connections to other services like job training or behavioral health supports.
- Helping people reconnect with family
- Coordinating medical care and support with appointments
Like case management, goals are personalized and based on the needs and wants of the individual. It can take a long time for someone to be connected to permanent housing; outreach often provides a connection to necessary services in the interim.