|
Our Programs:
Community Education
Our goal is to raise public awareness of the need for basic hygiene
items in our community. We offer brochures listing our services,
needs and ways the public can participate. The brochure also
contains contacts for those who would like to receive assistance. We
also offer employee and employer training in areas of personal
hygiene and the workplace. Our great desire is to restore
self-esteem through education without embarrassing the clients.
Crisis Intervention
Imagine a social worker coming to your house or apartment to
conduct an inspection. If you do not pass you could be homeless. You
may not have been able to afford the cleaning products you need or
have the knowledge or skills to keep your house in order. We offer
house cleaning talks and have gone on crisis calls to help
individuals and families clean, with proper cleaning supplies and
show them how to be organized. Often times when people get the
courage to finally ask us for help they have been without soap or
shampoo for quite some time, so we respond and deliver as quickly as
possible.
Cultural Outreach
We do our best to recognize the different hygiene needs of all of
our clients. We deliver products for people of color to the Nubian
programs in our community. We have Hispanic men and women who
deliver products into the Hispanic community through their churches
and organizations. These are products such as hair gel, cholesterol
or shower caps and extensions. We also have been able to provide
clothing vouchers in Spanish and have four volunteer interpreters.
Dialysis and Amputees
We service these patients through local hospitals, Dialysis and
Amputee units. Many of these patients are sent home to live on very
little disability income. Good hygiene is a must for people with
diseases that may lead to amputation. Diseases like Diabetes and
Cancer. One patient was cleaning herself with cooking oil and taking
it off with rubbing alcohol because she had no other means until we
arrived. Their health is a priority to us.
Esther Project
This is an annual program we do for people in homeless shelters. We
put donations of large-size bath and shower items in backpacks or
shower caddies. In those we strive to include some "luxury" items
like nail polish, shaving cream, perfume samples, and we include a
Bible. Many people help our programs through out the years. These
noble people made the 2004 years’ Esther Project possible either
through finances, prayer, products, volunteering their time, or all
of these. This is a special thank you for their selflessness and for
helping us make this holiday project an annual event and not just a
fad. Albertson’s, Artist Richard Wood, Buggy Bath Car Wash, Dr. Ian
and Wendy Buxton, Care Chest, Char and Jerry, Jennifer Denison,
Dermody Properties, Tracy Gallaway, His Word Books, Jack-in-the- Box
Employees, Rebecca LaBeau, Macey’s Reno, Martha and Jerry Nims, Dr.
Gerald and Connie Peterson, Scolaries, Idora Silver, Soroptimist,
Marietta and Loren Steward, Evie Taylor, W al-mart, University
Family Fellowship, For His Glory Ministries, Shiloh Ministries.
Flower Power
Is our program where we buy after market or over stock flowers from
a local grocer for one to five dollars for five to over fifty
bouquets. We take the flowers and donated vases to the agencies we
serve. Domestic violence agencies, senior care, aids clinics,
Ronald MacDonald house, Spouse House, missions and shut-ins. We
make sure they know God cares for them and has not forgotten them
and has heard their prayers.
Health, Beauty, and
Ascetics
We offer to anyone in need, free of charge, any personal
hygiene products or cleaning agents we have available. We have seen
this help people with better health - mentally, physically and
emotionally. This also helps in the aid of the prevention and
slowing the spread of infections and disease. We have volunteer
stylists who donate their time and services to our clients for
everything from a simple haircut to pedicures and manicures. We also
have scar and tattoo removal services given to our clients for free
or at a discount. We also work with the local college and clinic for
discounted dental health and have had dentists donate their work.
These services have been very beneficial to those clients looking
for and gaining employment. We are able to get them free eye glasses
and an optical exam for a reduced rate. We try our best to restore
sight to the blind and to see smiles free of pain return to faces.
H.I.V./A.I.D.s Outreach
P.W.A.'s (persons with A.I.D.'s or H.I.V.) have special hygiene
needs. We deliver bleach and other strong cleaning agents to them
and through related agencies fill special needs like thermal
underwear. They are a special part of the Flower Power program and
we try to reach as many with flowers a week as we can. They need
special hugs as part of their self esteem building, to know they are
not the lepers society sometimes portrays them to be. They also
need to know that H.I.V. is a horrible disease not a judgment from a
God, whose real love for them is unconditional even with the
lifestyle choices they made. God's love for them is unconditional
and so is ours. Many have special optical needs we have been able
to meet as well as special hair care options.
Kids Care 4 Kids
We always have served the kids in each category of our programs. Our
personal hygiene kits are put together by volunteers. Our volunteers
found that their kids have great compassion for the things we do and
often asked their parents if they could help. Our Kids care 4 Kids
program provides personal hygiene for kids to sort and bag up for
other kids receiving these grooming kits. The kids work much faster
than the adults and have a lot of fun doing it. Once a year we take
the kids on a tour of some of the agencies we drop off the kits to,
agencies that serve runaway, displaced, homeless or abused children.
In these kits we always try to put in little extra’s like tooth
paste, tooth brush, socks, gloves, wash clothes along with the other
basic kit items. Whether the volunteer family is a single parent
home or stay at home, they have found this program is easy to
supervise, involves their children in the community needs, and is
something the kids get their friends involve with.
Why are these programs
needed?
In Washoe County there are currently 12,000 people receiving
public assistance in the form of TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy
Families) and food stamps. People on assistance are not allowed to
purchase soap, toilet paper, feminine protection, cleaning supplies,
or any non-food items. Webster's Dictionary defines health, hygiene
and esteem as: freedom from defect or disease, being physically and
mentally sound, wholesome, promotion of good health and to have a
high opinion or value, high regard or respect for oneself. Welfare
case workers have responded positively to the Community Cabinet
projects, including the Women's Cabinet effort. They tell us they
have longed for years for a program where their clients could obtain
basic hygiene items and paper goods. Some people are so desperate
for these items that they have admitted to pilfering them from
private businesses and public restrooms. |