Be a part of the solution to end homelessness this week, by joining your neighbors to help count the homeless in our city, the largest count of its kind in the country.  Volunteers are needed on the evening of Thursday, January 28, 2016 to assist the Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency (LAHSA) in conducting the annual census of men, women, youth, and families experiencing homelessness through out the city.
The Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council is helping to mobilize volunteers for the Greater Wilshire area. The night of the count begins at the Wilshire United Methodist Church (4350 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90005) at 8 p.m. and will take about three hours. GWNC volunteers will survey each of our 14 census tracts (some volunteers will walk, some will drive) in teams of four (driver, navigator, and two counters).
How it works
Joe Hoffman, GWNC board member and veteran counter, explains how volunteers will help LAHSA conduct this important count:
“The night begins with an introduction to your team. You’ll be given your counting kit consisting of maps, census forms, clipboards, pencils, flashlight (to read your maps and forms…not to locate homeless people), and ponchos if it rains. You’ll also get a T-shirt to identify you as part of the count.
We’ll spend the next 45 minutes training you how to spot, identify, and properly count people experiencing homelessness. You and your team will then be deployed to your specific census tract to perform the count (we will try to coordinate transportation within teams to walking tracts that are driving distance from our deployment site).
After completing the census of your assigned tract, you will return to the deployment site to hand in your counts and supplies (you get to keep the shirt!)Â and receive a certificate of appreciation as well as our profound thanks for being involved.”
Registration & More Information
Volunteer registration is required.  To register, see http://www.theycountwillyou.org/volunteer_registration_home
A 30-minute volunteer training video is available at http://www.theycountwillyou.org/hc_training
And more information is available at the Greater Wilshire deployment site: http://www.theycountwillyou.org/wilshire_count_20160128
If you have questions, please e-mail Joe Hoffman at [email protected]g. In the next week, those who have registered at the link above will receive more information via e-mail. If you put together a team and have a preference as to the area you’d like to count, please add that to the comments during your registration.
It’s three hours of your life and it does make a difference.
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