Notes from the second meeting of the Rice Coalition on Hunger and Homelessness.

2. New Members?
RCOHH
Welcome New Faces… (and old)!
Introduce yourselves!
• Name…
• What you do…
• How you heard about RCoHH
• Why you’re here.

3. Group Mission…
RCOHH
“So… what’s RCoHH?”
“The Rice Coalition on Hunger and Homelessness is a
student-led service and advocacy group focused on
tackling systemic poverty and homelessness in
Houston.”

4. Group Mission…
RCOHH
Put simply…
We’re looking for ways to help the folks in need:
• Stay well-fed.
• Be uplifted out of poverty.
• And have others be made aware of their existence.

5. Meeting Agenda
RCOHH
TODAY’S MEETING

6. Meeting Agenda
RCOHH
Meeting Agenda
• Sandwiches For All Recap
• OWLS Consulting Experiment Cases
• Photojournalism Project
• Officer Initiation
• Group Formation / Idea Generation / Other News
• Youth Homelessness (Laura Moore)

7. Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)
RCOHH
BIGGEST EVER
60 Volunteers
+
2 Hours
=
630
Sack Lunches

8. Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)
RCOHHTotal Expenditures: ~$ 800 | Unit: ~$ 1.30

9. Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)
RCOHH
Distribution Sites:
• Food Not Bombs (100)
• Palmer Way Station (200)
• SEARCH Homeless Services (100)
• Emergency Aid Coalition (100)
• Turning Point (70)

10. Sandwiches-For-All (9/8)
RCOHH
Feedback?
Suggestions?
Fundraising Ideas?

11. Sandwiches-For-All
RCOHH
Next Event:
October 20, 2013 or
October 27, 2013?

12. Begin… Owls Consulting
Owls Consulting
Seeks to partner volunteers
directly with homeless
individuals looking for help.

13. The Story of a Sad Sandwich…
And so…
Our young idealistic
protagonist ventures off to
hear stories of injustice,
abuse, poverty, and
suffering.

14. The Story of a Sad Sandwich…
Only to hear the refrains:
“Nope. I don’t need anything”
“I’d say 90-95% of the people out
here just want to be homeless.”
“I just want weed”

15. The Story of a Sad Sandwich…
Oh.

16. The Story of a Sad Sandwich
RCOHH
“Scratch any cynic and you will find a
disappointed idealist”
- George Carlin

17. Owls Consulting Project
RCOHH
OWLS Consulting
(“Why we still need to care”)

18. Client #1: T.
RCOHH
• Photo hidden for privacy.
• Client #1 is the perfect example of a homeless man who
genuinely needs help…

19. Client #1: T.
RCOHH
• 42 year old from New Mexico.
• Moved to Houston 3 months ago. Has been homeless
since.
• Likely suffering from low-level schizophrenia
• Requests:
• Recently, robbed at the Beacon. ID stolen. Unable to
obtain recurring benefits.
• Likely needs help with mental issues.

20. Client #2: P.
RCOHH
• Elderly Ethiopian man. Previously worked for Methodist.
• Using disability ($800) to pay for apartment. Landlords
abusive. Cost is too high. Likely to end up in shelter.
• Requests:
o Looking for help identifying low-cost housing (~$300)

21. Client #3/4:J&E.
RCOHH
• Former Veteran. Real chatty.
• Had been homeless for many months. Recently found
homeowner willing to spare a room for cost.
• Requests:
• Looking for way to secure benefits
o Food Stamps
o Medicare
o Social Security
• Looking to recover fiancé's ID after stolen at SEARCH

22. **** Client #5: L.
RCOHH
• Elderly Hispanic lady. Mother of three.
• Unemployed after recent operation. Currently staying with
daughter-in-law. Likely to be kicked out in next few
weeks.
• Requests:
• Looking for help applying for jobs
o Need help making resume
o Need help identifying places that are hiring
o Need help applying online (no internet access)
• Looking for low-cost housing or other benefits.

23. Lessons thus far…
RCOHH
Big lessons from our recent attempt to identify clients…
• Better to create conversations with people at
sites directly.
• Cards travel much further than expected.
• Homeless community is incredibly varied.

24. Next Step:
RCOHH
Applications for Consultants
• Client Interfacing:
• This type of consultant will be responsible for directly
contacting and maintaining connection with the client. Will
provide status reports and may end up meeting with client.
• Rice Researcher:
• This type of consultant will be responsible for researching
opportunities, performing assistance from Rice. (No travel
required).

25. Houston Invisible People
RCOHH
Houston Invisible People Project
(HIPP)

26. HIPP
RCOHH

37. Groups:
RCOHH
Locations/Collaborators
• TxLIHS (Low Income Housing)
• One Voice
• SEARCH
• FNB / Palmer
• At – Large
• Film Project

38. One Voice Texas (OVT)
A network of public, private, and nonprofit organizations in the greater Houston
area using collaboration, capacity-building, and advocacy to ensure the health
and human services needs of all Texans are addressed.
OVT Homeless Initiatives
1. Increase Awareness
2. Expand the number of providers
3. Expand the opportunities for targeted populations to receive services
OVT has youth and adult-specific initiatives

39. Collaboration with RCoHH
•Speaker series featuring Dr Katherine Barillas, OVT Director of Child Welfare
Policy (and others)
•Workshops on legislative process and public health work
•Student involvement in Texas legislative process
•Potential for new partnerships, opportunities, and connections

40. “Everybody has a birthday. Help kids in
homeless shelters celebrate theirs”-
Dosomething.org

41.  Over 1 million children experience
homelessness every year. Many kids’
birthdays fall while they are in a shelter,
making it hard to celebrate.
 Creating and Sending a homemade birthday
card to a shelter will help ensure that
everyone is celebrated on their special day

42.  Create on homemade birthday card
 Take a picture of you and the card
 We can take pictures for you and email them to
you if you don’t have a camera or smart phone
with you
 Submit the picture online to have your name
entered once for a chance to win a $4,000
scholarship
 Create 2 more cards to enter your name
again… and your name can be entered an
infinite # of times
 Due by October 11th

43.  Laura will mail all of the cards made in this
meeting in a manilla folder to the shelter
 We will be sending our cards to either the
 Star of Hope Mission
or
 Covenant House Texas
Feel free to make more on your own!
The website is DoSomething.org for more
information

44.  Gender neutral
 Age neutral
 Blank on the inside
 The shelter will write in a personal note
to the kid or teen.
 Please don’t write your own name on
the card
 Get creative!
 Drawing of well known cartoon
characters, such as despicable me
minions, seem to be thoroughly enjoyed 