the street outreach video series is designed to equip homeless service
providers with the skills and knowledge they need to do their jobs well rather
than theoretical discussion these training videos depict providers
practicing in real-world settings for more information training and episode
discussion guides visit path program Samsa gov
the path program is a federally funded program called projects for assistance
in transition from homelessness and it funds outreach workers like us all over
the country to reach out to people who are homeless and who are experiencing
mental health problems today Tina and I are gonna check in with the same guy we
saw last week we're gonna kind of go back to the same block and see if he's
still around and hopefully he'll be a little more receptive to us this time we
pulled up and noticed that he was still there it was kind of exciting to see
that we could go out and approach him again see how he's doing I was concerned
about his well-being so what do you hope happens today when we see this guy again
well today I'm hoping that he'll be a little more open to us he'll give us his
background information and then we can start building a rapport with them and
help we can actually get him engaged in some of our services well you get the
first word again hey how are you hey how you doing hi I noticed that he did have
40 ounces sitting next to him and I thought there wasn't much missing so I
thought maybe he just started drinking so I kind of curtailed the questions I
was going to ask I debated if I should even bring it up I was cautious because
I'm thinking maybe if he has been drinking he might become a little more
rambunctious volatile but that wasn't the case so
again my perspective is changed it's Jeff and Tina from the street outreach
team how you doing all right my friends call me LD man when we encountered LD
today he was a lot more open Tina noticed this and I did too that he
he was much more open to talking with us seem more open to our presence there
certainly gave us his initials which was a huge step forward I think just in
terms of building rapport and Trust what's going on with your arm you know
drinking from I don't know what happened there's a little too much to drink when
someone's really intoxicated it's hard to make much of a connection but
certainly with a lot of people when they're they've been drinking some you
can still go a long way in trying to build trust and build rapport I woke up
and I had his bad news can you see a doctor or do you need to go see when we
have a clinic that we could take you to know I'm okay okay I'm okay with okay
well you let us know if you want us to give you a ride to the clinic we could
hang out with you there and get it checked out all right when we noticed
his the bandage on his arm we took a much more low-key approach not saying
you have to go get this checked out but just more to say there's a free clinic
we'd be happy to take you there I think in retrospect I probably should have
given him a card that had the clinic's information on it but you know hopefully
either he'll get it checked out or next time we see him he didn't allow us to
give him a ride there are you staying warm enough at night out here no not
really no really no no a sleeping bag just came up missing somebody stole it
or something somebody stole your sleeping bag yeah I think so
we've got some sleeping bags back at our drop-in center I'll get me to bring one
next time we come out yeah okay thank you are you hungry do you want some
granola bars I have a few no I'm okay okay thank you all right it's nice to
talk with you LD yeah good day nice to meet you when I went to go shake his
hand I really forgot myself and I just assumed that everyone has the same
social cues that that I myself have and it kind of put me back in my place that
I shouldn't let them approach me in that aspect I still want to go out and do
outreach and help people but let them as they become comfortable with me then I
can start acting more comfortable I think Tina did a nice job today she was
a tease she was comfortable she did reach out to shake hands with LD and he
was not ready for that and I think she understood that as soon as it happened
and once you do that once and that happens you never do it again you follow
the person's leave and and next time we'll wait for LD to reach out his hand
first so what do you think went well about that encounter
yes kind of a happy that he actually gave us his name yeah and he's open to
us coming back again next time and maybe transporting him or giving him some food
and a sleeping bag so he was much more open to our services yeah I thought so
too what were there some things that you might do differently or that you wish
you hadn't done yes looking back on my putting my hand out there to shake his
hand I was just total instinct to do it but I
know better than to do something like that maybe I don't know what do you
think yeah I mean I think it's a really normal kind of human reaction to reach
out to somebody like that I think we have to be really careful when we're on
the street on outreach and really follow the person's lead again like you know he
gave us his name we didn't ask him for it I think the same thing goes for
handshake yeah there so what do we need to do now
what are the next steps continue building the rapport and getting into
the clinic and maybe from there moving on into some sort of shelter
a housing project of some sort I mean a couple of media thinks we need to get
sleeping bag for him right away and I think we also need to really probably
give him a little more information on the free clinic I felt like we probably
could have handled that a little bit better also and okay not in a
high-pressure way but at least offer offer it again I think we keep coming
back around just like we're doing it some may look at our interaction with LD
as being brief and impersonal but from what I understand it takes quite a long
time to start building a rapport with someone who who one is homeless on the
street and Judah has never met you before and they don't know exactly what
you're there for the way that I wish happens here in Venice Beach California
is philosophically the same way outreach happens all over the country whether
you're talking about rural Appalachia or the streets of New York or in the woods
outside of Seattle you go to where people are you meet them where they are
geographically philosophically emotionally you you meet people where
they are and walk with them for a little while in their journey and that's the
same regardless of what city or state you're in and regardless of
you