Last week I got some great news from an elderly client that she had gotten her utilities turned back on thanks to a simple referral from 2-1-1.

Let me back up.

Myself and my outreach partner that day, Tammy, deployed to the home of a sweet elderly woman. She owed over $5,000 on her utility bill which added up from having to pay other unexpected expenses. Her middle-aged son was battling cancer and was cut off his Medicare plan once his treatments got to be too extensive (another unfortunate situation altogether).

As you can imagine, being a senior with medical needs herself, legally blind, on a fixed income, with a son who is ill, and life continuing to go on (bills and all), it's a lot to keep up with.

When we arrived her utilities were pending shutoff. A week later DTE had turned off her lights and gas completely after giving her a grace period. I was working with her to help her get some assistance for her bill, but as most things go when working within the formal system of care, there are applications, and waiting periods. Almost nothing is immediate, especially utility assistance.

My last idea was to have her call DTE case management line to ask about applying for a Home Heating Credit. Turns out she was eligible and was able to get the bill paid down to a manageable amount. She fortunately had enough money in savings to pay the rest herself.

Last I heard from her, DTE was scheduled to come out the next day to turn her utilities back on.

So jf you or someone you know in the metro Detroit area is struggling to pay their utility bills, and is low income, you can call DTE about a Home Heating Credit. Details here:http://www.dteenergy.com/residentialCustomers/billingPayment/paymentPrograms/payAssistance.html#heatingCredit

And of course, 2-1-1 is always a great resource to keep in mind as we have information to thousands of community agencies in your area.

Dang…it's been a while. Things have been pretty busy at 2-1-1 On the Go!. Our organization went through some major changes, which shook things up a little bit, but now that we're all settling in again, things are starting to normalize. The good news is we hired a new staff member to assist us with our outreach efforts. Her name is Chelita, and she actually came to us from our 2-1-1 call center, and her extensive background in social work and job development is being put to good use. We are very lucky to have her on the team because she brings a ton of energy and knowledge to the table.

I will update this more in depth soon, but I just wanted to pop my head up and let everyone know I'm still alive.

Last Friday United Way for Southeastern Michigan (UWSEM) hosted yet another successful Alternative Spring Break. Here, college students came from all over to participate in a week of service projects in Detroit in lieu of other Spring Break plans. Nick, our program leader, and I had the pleasure of presenting 2-1-1 On the Go! to the students on their last day. It was a groggy bunch, them having been up slumber partying well into the morning, but they managed to respond to our mission with excitement (thanks to a little inspiration from UWSEM's Volunteer Coordinator, Kira Putt's cheerleading demonstration, and Nick's and my impeccable sense of humor).

Nick and I, as well as few other UWSEM staff members, led the students in going out into different communities in the Greater Detroit area, to find employers interested in hiring our clients. We sent teams to Dearborn, Midtown, Ferndale, and Hamtramck to scour the local businesses (avoiding national chains, with the exception of fast food restaurants) talking to employers about the needs of our clients. The teams went out equipped with an understanding of 2-1-1 and 2-1-1 On the Go!, and how to pitch the ask to employers for full-time jobs.

They must've done something right because we ended the day with 51 employers interested in varying degrees in helping out in some way with our mission. Not all of those employers will have jobs to offer, but at least they are willing to learn about our program and keep us in their back pocket if jobs do open up. Hopefully some will take to the mission and spread the word to other employers in their networks.

Nick has organized all the contacts into one spreadsheet (a task I avoid at all costs), and we will begin following up with the employers on Monday. We hope to get some jobs out of this, but more important is the experience that the ASBers were able to gain in being a unique voice for our clients. Hopefully they learned that you don't have to be on staff with 2-1-1 On the Go! to be a vital part of our ongoing mission, and they will continue to work on reeling in employers for us as they go about their lives.

This was a fun bunch to work with, and I am privileged to have met some pretty rad folks willing to give their time and energy for the betterment of people's lives.

I took a random drive to Port Huron on my day off Monday, just to sort of get away and experience someplace unfamiliar to me. I was sitting in my car, parked on the edge of the water overlooking Canada, when this elderly woman walked up really close to my car and stood right in front of it taking pictures of the water. She was close enough for me to wonder if she was sitting on my front bumper. When I took notice of my internal dialog, I realized that I was somewhat uncomfortable. This woman was invading my space. There are hidden rules in America. She should know that you don't just stand near someone's car while they're sitting in it. As my sister and I used to bicker about when we were kids, there's an invisible force field. You can't see it, but you sure can't cross it either. Our society is funny like that. We're taught to "never talk to strangers" upon entering this world, and that rule seems to subconsciously stick with us as we grow up. We walk around in our own bubbles, only connecting with those who have been invited in, or have something to offer us, and often ignoring everyone else or at best making small talk about the weather.

Is it any wonder why there's such a divide between the suburbs and the city? We all have these personal space issues that prevent us from truly connecting, and keep us in our own bubbles, with our own people who we can relate to. But I hope that we can somehow change that and create a movement of people who play a more permanent role in the lives of those in need, no longer holding them at a distance. Bill Sullivan put it really well when he said in a meeting the other day, "it's becoming clear that 2-1-1 On the Go! is evolving into more than just providing services. It's becoming somewhat of a movement." I have to agree. I think we're on the right path. There's a larger problem going on that needs to be addressed, and the answer is not another program, nor is the answer more funding. We've got to change the way we view serving the homeless.

Does anyone get the feeling that we do more to maintain the problem of homelessness than to improve it? There are many groups of well-meaning individuals that come downtown to pass out sandwiches, but don't help those they're feeding problem solve and get some long-term help. They're not figuring out why they're hungry in the first place. So the chronically homeless quickly learn what days people are serving food where, and they make their rounds day after day, and never get out of the cycle. Or there are the every day passersby that will give a panhandler money, thinking it will be a blessing, not realizing that too often the only good that does, is it affords the panhandler the opportunity to keep making a living on the street. What we need is not more people to serve dinner at a soup kitchen on Christmas Eve. Detroit needs people to truly connect, and provide real support for long-term goals of those who no longer want to be homeless, and for those who are on the verge of becoming homeless. This isn't a problem that should be left up to the system to solve.

I was thinking today about what I would do if I lost my job and couldn't pay my rent. I started listing off the names of all the people who I know would take me in without a second thought, and without a time limit on how long I can stay. The list became extensive, as I realized I have many layers of support, not because I'm popular, but because I've been raised in a loving family, and have grown up in a positive environment which has allowed me to nurture a lot of positive friendships. But so many of our 2-1-1 On the Go! clients have no support system to fall back on. One bad card dealt to them could leave them back on the street, without a stable living environment to feel safe in and call home.

I, and the rest of the 2-1-1 On the Go! team believe - and I don't think this is news to anyone at United Way - that a support system, in addition to providing services, will be the thing that gets them off the street and keeps them off. So with that in mind, we are currently working on the addition of mentors to our program who will connect one-on-one with our homeless clients, hopefully grow friendships, and advocate for their mentee's needs. They will teach them valuable skills like how to set up an email account, how to write a good resume, how to search the internet, etc., and give them the personal attention that they're missing. In addition to that, we are working on making the Live United social networking site suitable for being used as a tool for connecting people with the needs of the homeless in our program, as well as with other groups in Detroit who are leading events and organizations that serve the homeless in one way or another. The site will hopefully serve as the main hub in Detroit for people wanting to connect with the need in our city. I, for one, am excited about these additions and the general direction of 2-1-1 On the Go!. It would be pretty cool to see a movement of volunteers evolve that go beyond the traditional means of serving the homeless.

I should also mention that we are tracking ahead of our employment and housing goals for 2009. So fear not, while all this thinking and developing (and blogging for that matter) is going on, things are still getting done.