Two Years Down…

I can’t believe it, but it’s been two years since I started my job working at One Collective. Over these last two years, some of the incredible things that have happened are:

• 11 people are currently housed and off the streets
• At the end 2022/beginning of 2023 the city set aside $940,000 to be put towards a solution to more effectively address homelessness because of our draft proposal they saw
• Relationships and collaboration between organizations and caseworkers have grown
• 17 organizations participate in collaborative casework meetings
• The friendships and relationships with my friends who experience homelessness have grown deeper and more Touch Barriers have been broken (see my newsletter The Touch Barrier)
• The City of Elgin and other partners have been open to our ideas
• Our proposal for an overnight winter shelter to be open every night from December through the end of March was approved