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Samaritan Center to change program
To stay open, the director of the money-strapped nonprofit is making policy changes and has taken a self-help approach since losing $123,000 in federal grant money last year. Nelson recently asked Simi Valley churches to participate in Souper Bowl Sunday on Feb. 5 and Feb. 13 to raise money for the organization, which provides for the homeless a hot shower, meals, counseling and a place to receive mail and phone calls from family and prospective employers. The fundraiser is a national effort to feed the country’s hungry. Young people hold a container—preferably a soup bowl—at the end of church services to collect funds. One dollar is the suggested donation. According to the Souper Bowl website, over $28 million has et been raised since 1993 for charities across the country that feed the hungry Last year local churches collected about $3,500 for the Samaritan Center, Nelson said. So far one church—One Spirit Center for Conscious Living—has sent in a $255 check. Nelson is waiting to hear from the others. A benefit concert Nelson had planned last year didn’t materialize; however, she hasn’t given up. She still plans to have personal friends Chris Pinnick, former guitarist with the group Chicago, and Doobie Brothers drummer Chet McCracken perform in concert possibly this spring at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. Nelson also is instituting policy changes to ensure that the charity’s doors stay open. To earn the much needed grant money, the Samaritan Center must show that clients are making steps toward changing their situation and re-entering mainstream society. To that end, clients will be required to participate in counseling or an introductory computer class starting in March. Before the March 1 deadline, though, it wasn’t mandatory for clients to attend the drug and alcohol programs or counseling sessions available through the center in order to use the other services available, such as a hot shower, meals and a message center. Nelson has received several grants so far, but to continue receiving them and be eligible for others the center must make these changes. “We have to show we are helping them, not babysitting them,” Nelson said. “They have to do something constructive.” Last year, the center began offering free psychological counseling from intern therapists in the master’s degree program at California State University, Northridge. In addition, drug and alcohol counselors soon will be a permanent fixture at the center, a motivational speaker will give presentations and an introductory computer class will be offered. Clients must participate in at least one of these programs three times a month or face a oneday suspension from use of the center’s other services. The counseling program has been successful. Jodi McIntosh directs the four graduate students who come twice a week to counsel about 30 of the center’s clients. She’s seen four homeless in the program leave the streets and enter rehabilitation facilities. However, if the Samaritan Center loses funding, the counseling program—the only one of its kind the school operates in the San Fernando and Simi valleys—would be discontinued. “(The homeless) would have no other source of crisis counseling …” McIntosh said. “They would definitely suffer if we weren’t there.” Liz Jemielita is a counselor who has seen clients at the center every week for the last eight months. She said it’s taken this long to gain their trust, an essential component to making progress. “We’ve found the more we’re here, the more people trust us and the more open they become,” she said. “There’s no way for them to do any real work unless they trust us … to effect change requires a collaborative relationship.” They are people dealing with long-term issues, in some cases problems that have gone on for 30 or 40 years, and changes are slow and incremental, she said. “I definitely see the building blocks in place to start to move them forward in a different direction,” she added. |
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