Care for the Homeless Clients to Teach “Advocating for Ourselves”

May 27, 2014

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 know it,” according to Anthony Williams, another client presenter at the workshop.

Other Care for the Homeless client presenters will include William Bryant and Philip Malebranche. The conference they are speaking at will include many hundreds of health care providers, administrators, policymakers, clients and others from across the country. The conference keynote speaker is U.S. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

Presentations by the Care for the Homeless Speakers’ Bureau, given by Care for the Homeless clients, are available to schools, faith communities, civic or professional organizations and other groups.