Care For the Homeless

Last night Care for the Homeless celebrated the graduation of its second class of “CFH Certified Advocates”, adding new members to the Care for the Homeless Speakers’ Bureau. The program is open to volunteer client leaders who have been or are homeless and are consumers of Care for the Homeless health care or other services. Those recognized as graduating included Patricia Gale, George Phipps, Monica Sayers, Brenda Turner and Raymond West. Previous graduates who introduced the new graduates or spoke at the graduation included Calvin Alston, David Broxton, Ava Conner, Gayle Dorsky, Garrett McMahan and Anthony Williams. In order to graduate participants must completed 12 hours of training, half in homeless policy issue training and half in public speaking training. At the graduation each new Certified Advocate told their personal story, hooked that story to a public policy issue and advocated for better public policy on that issue. Certified Advocates become mem...

Care for the Homeless began the Speakers’ Bureau in September 2013 as a program to help homeless and formerly homeless New Yorkers tell their stories and advocate for changes in homeless policy in New York City.  From presentations at universities such as Pratt, John Jay and Mt. Saint Vincent in the Bronx, to elementary school classrooms, to advocacy events and city council hearings, our first class of ‘Certified Advocates’ have told their stories to a wide-variety of New Yorkers, sharing the message that we can end homelessness as we know it. This past weekend January 17th and 18th saw the second course of Speakers’ Bureau applicants, each a CFH client who has experienced homelessness in New York City,  improve their public speaking and learn about housing policies and advocacy techniques. The program is full of dedicated New Yorkers who want to take a part in calling community leaders to greater action in solving the homeless crisis. The class was taught by Jef...

Four Care for the Homeless client leaders have been invited to attend the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference this week in New Orleans to present a workshop on our client advocacy work. The workshop will be called “Advocating for Ourselves.” David Broxton, one of the clients teaching the workshop said “Care for the Homeless does incredible work in providing life-saving health services to people who are homeless and in advocating for policies to fight, prevent and end homelessness. But I’ve learned in my involvement here that no one can advocate for homeless people as effectively as those of us who have lived this experience.” “We’ve had the opportunity to testify to City Council and the state legislature, to talk with policymakers and most important, through our Care for the Homeless Speakers’ Bureau, to meet and speak with interested New Yorkers about policy choices that helped cause the homelessness crisis and how better policies could end homelessness as we kno...