|
CCH Outreach
Bringing services directly to hard to reach populations.
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless has been delivering street outreach to homeless people in Denver since 1986. Two specific outreach programs provide life saving resources and direct medical care to Colorado’s homeless.
Street Outreach  The Coalition's Outreach Program is the lead agency in one of the most effective collaborations serving chronically homeless individuals living on Denver’s streets: the Denver Street Outreach Collaborative (DSOC). As part of Denver’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, the Coalition and several other organizations work closely with the Denver Police Department and the Downtown Denver Partnership to deliver critical services to Denver’s homeless population.
Collaborating with other providers like St. Francis Center, the Coalition's Outreach Program puts caseworkers on the streets who search for homeless individuals needing help. Engaging with a chronically homeless individual can be a time-consuming process; for some it can take five minutes, for others, it may take years. As the relationship develops, the outreach worker connects him/her to available resources. These may include access to housing, healthcare, mental health and substance abuse treatment, respite care, acquisition of identification, benefits, transportation, food, and clothing. Long-term housing for the individual is the ultimate goal. In 2007, outreach staff worked with 1,178 individuals and successfully placed 357 in housing.
The Health Outreach Program
As part of the Coalition's Street Outreach Program, the Health Outreach Program (HOP) takes medical care to the homeless community in a 47-foot-long mobile medical clinic. Launched in April, 2007, the new HOP van is a state of the art facility featuring two medical exam rooms and a lab that replaces a much smaller vehicle. In 2007, its doctors and nurses served more than 1,500 homeless adults and children in 22 locations in the Denver metro area. |
