On May 20, Director of Navigation Services, Alice Sueltenfuss, of Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement, or HOPE, will host a virtual conversation about the ins and outs of the local nonprofit.
The free event will give community members an opportunity to hear directly from the HOPE staff about navigation services and shelters, programming and the expertise she brings to her current role, according to a recent newsletter.
“(The staff) are on the front line bringing their compassion and expertise to every unhoused person every day — walking our talk,” stated Kimberly Braun, HOPE’s director of development, in the newsletter. “Longtime staff like (Sueltenfuss) can speak directly to what we are doing, what are our challenges and successes, what is it really like out there for our unhoused.”
Starting at 12 p.m., Sueltenfuss will take her audience on what she called a virtual “show and tell,” providing people with a sneak peek of the organization’s two shelter sites in Journey and FaithPoint churches in Longmont, she said.
The unhoused community has not gone untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic. HOPE worked diligently to keep those they serve safe. Sueltenfuss plans to dedicate a few moments of the sneak peek to discuss how they managed to get to this point in the pandemic with little spread of the virus.
“We just had very, very few incidences of COVID,” she said. “At the front door we take everyone's temperature, we ask them how they're doing and, and then we ask them to use hand sanitizer or wash their hands and we ask that they wear a mask.”
Partnerships within Boulder County — including Housing Solutions of Boulder County, Inn Between and the city of Longmont — have played a major role in increasing the number of unhoused who have found permanent housing through HOPE.
“We house about two people a month … it doesn't sound like a lot but I remember four years ago when we were just excited if we had one person housed every three or four months,” she said. “Boulder County has really committed to housing resources and it's just nice to be a part of that system.”
On an average night without inclement weather, nearly 25 people stay at one of HOPE’s shelters, she said, adding during emergency situations, such as bad weather or storms, between 40 and 43 people access emergency day and overnight shelters.
Many of the unhoused individuals who access shelter through hope learn about night and emergency day shelters through word of mouth, according to Sueltenfuss.
The nonprofit depends on its 250 volunteers to help it and those served to make it through each day and night.
Sueltenfuss said her hope is more members of the community and volunteers who have not been able to stay regularly engaged with the organization will attend the conversation on May 20th to hear the latest updates and continue to spread the word.
“Some (volunteers) make meals for us and drop them off, some of them … come and serve food at the shelters. We want our volunteers to just be reminded that their assisting jobs and their volunteerism have meant the world to us, ” she said.
