Coalition Adds Staff for Organizing and Program Work

The Coalition would like to welcome Stephanie Weir and Michele Smith to our coalition’s efforts to end homelessness.

In other staff news, Kristin Titcombe will continue working on discharge planning through this fall as the Coalition’s Discharge Planning Specialist, and Hannah Hafter will stay on at the Coalition as the Conference Coordinator through mid-October.

Stephanie joined us last month as an AmeriCorp VISTA. Over the next year she will be providing support to the X Committee, St. Paul’s organization “of, by, and for” people experiencing homelessness. Current projects for
the X Committee include:

• Building and siting lockers for people experiencing homelessness to store their belongings; a $10,000 grant from the City of St. Paul is paying for the effort
• Coordinating the Peer Sobriety Mentorship Project–monthly trainings on counseling skills and understanding addiction are equipping a group of mentors to support friends addressing their homelessness and addictions
• Organizing community education events around Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week

Michele, a University of Minnesota student with the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA), will be coordinating our 2005 Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) efforts. Through mid-October, Michele will be “pre-registering” people experiencing homelessness to vote and helping homeless service staff certify themselves as “vouchers” for same-day registrants on Election Day. Expect a call from Michele over the next couple weeks to learn how you can take advantage of Minnesota’s new and improved election laws.