Healthcare for the Homeless - Houston Style!

"Learning Service Project? What is that? Is it going to be hard? What am I supposed to do?" Those were my first thoughts and words out of my mouth after hearing about this assignment. AJ calmly looked at me and said, "Its ok, I got us covered! We can volunteer for HHH." After a few days, AJ and I were all set up with Cherie to volunteer once a week for one and a half hours at HHH! I was excited, but I had no idea what to expect. 


I have to admit, I am one of those people who lock their car doors secretly when pulling up next to a homeless person at a stop light. I can help it, but I do it anyways. I do it because I am scared. Thats the same way I felt when I pulled into the parking garage at HHH on San Jacinto. As I pulled into a parking space in my old, rusty, two door Honda Accord, I said to myself, "What am I so scared of? These are just people, they  have more things in life to be scared of and here I am scared of another person because they live on the street." At that instant, I knew that my short amount of time at HHH would impact my life in the greatest way possible. 


At HHH's website: http://www.homelesshouston.org you will see the following mission statement:


THE COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS OF HOUSTON/HARRIS COUNTY IS A PRIVATE, NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION WHOSE MISSION IS TO LEAD IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY STRATEGIES TO PREVENT AND END HOMELESSNESS.


When I first got there, I met with Cherie, the Volunteer Coordinator, she was so welcoming and sweet. She introduced me to a few of the workers. I was surprised to find many of them worked there double time, half the time being paid and would come back on a different shift as a volunteer! It just amazes me how amazing people can be. Cherie explained that she needed some filing to be handled, so that is what AJ and I will be working on for the Learning Service Project. Cherie is allowing us to sit with Elizabeth (a student from St. Thomas that works at the reception area) every once in a while to get a feel of what it is like interacting with the patients. Although we will be in a small filing room, I named my blog, "Small Door, Big Vision," because I know we will be hearing and seeing the great things that HHH offers to our community from inside a small door.