You can help end homelessness.
As an individual or as part of a community, you can help raise awareness and end homelessness.
Faith Community
- Deliver a sermon on homelessness; consider publishing it, in part, as an opinion piece in your local paper
- Join an affordable housing coalition in your area
- Collect items for your local food shelf
- Invite your local elected officials to discussion housing/homelessness
- Ask your members to make a donation to the Coalition or a local homeless program
- Become a member of the Coalition
- Publically resolve to help end homelessness by adding to the My Homelessness Resolution blog
- Sign up for the Coalition’s action alerts and updates
Students and Educators
- Organize activities outlined in A Student’s Guide to Ending Homelessness
- Organize a sleep-out to raise awareness in your community
- Organize a drive for clothes, food or school supplies to help homeless youth
- Volunteer at a local program
- Participate in St. Stephen’s Human Services A Day in the Life educational program
- Sign up for the Coalition’s action alerts and updates
- Publicly resolve to help end homelessness with your classroom by adding to the My Homelessness Resolution blog
- Visit the community blog by youth experiencing homelessness.
Community Members
- Host a community event to raise awareness of homelessness (sleep-out, book discussion group, etc.)
- Volunteer at your local shelter
- Be kind to homeless people you meet; if you worry about giving them a dollar because they might not spend it the way you’d like, consider giving them a clean, dry pair of cotton socks instead (the #2 need of most people on the streets second only to “hope”- Why I Beg survey)
- Review the Wilder Foundation’s Homelessness in Minnesota 2009 report
- Write a Letter to the Editor about why ending homelessness matters to you
- Sign up for the Coalition’s action alerts and newsletters
- Publicly resolve to help end homelessness by adding to the My Homelessness Resolution blog
People Experiencing Homelessness
- Contact the Coalition to share your story and insights on solutions to end homelessness
- Sign up for the Coalition’s action alerts and updates
- If you live in Minneapolis, attend a Homeless Against Homelessness (HAH) meeting. Contact Robert Fischer at St. Stephen’s Human Services for more information: 612-879-7623 or rfischer@ststephensmpls.org.
- Publicly resolve to help end homelessness by adding to the My Homelessness Resolution blog
Elected Officials
- Visit your local homeless shelters, food shelves, battered women’s programs, at-risk youth programs and workforce centers to educate yourself on the issues of homelessness and poverty
- Review the Wilder Foundation’s Homelessness in Minnesota 2009 report
- Participate in your local affordable housing coalition groups
- Submit a letter to your local paper as an opinion piece and send it to the Coalition for possible inclusion in our newsletter or website
- Sponsor a food drive, clothes drive, school supplies drive, etc.
- Volunteer at a local program to highlight that the need is year-round
- Publicly resolve to help end homelessness by adding to the My Homelessness Resolution blog
Direct Service Providers
- Become a member of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless
- Share your thoughts and concerns about the Coalition’s legislative agenda
- Participate in your local continuum of care and/or affordable housing coalition planning processes
- Sign up for the Coalition’s action alerts and updates
- Publicly resolve to help end homelessness by adding to the My Homelessness Resolution blog
Volunteer
Contact the volunteer coordinator at a shelter in your area to serve a meal or do an overnight shift.
Get involved personally or with your community with ideas from the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless advocacy list.
Write, email, or call your elected officials. Explain why ending homelessness matters to you.