From Our Perspective – Kaylee Wieczorek
OFC staff are often asked what it is like to do street outreach. This is one of our stories. Kaylee Wieczorek joined Outreach Fort Collins in August, 2022.
On any given day our team will respond to a request from someone in the community, asking if we can support someone they believe is experiencing homelessness. Frequently these calls come from a local business owner or employee. This caller might be concerned about someone’s wellbeing, or they need help addressing disruptive behaviors impacting their business. When responding to these calls, our intention is not only to provide needed support to the person they called about but also to provide needed support to the person who called.
The work we do is unique. It differs from other agencies working with homeless populations, as well as from other street outreach programs. One of the most apparent examples of this is in the breadth of ways we support people. This extends beyond the services we provide, encompassing the spaces in which we provide them and the groups that we provide them to. As we often say, we meet everyone at their unique place of need. This is demonstrated on a daily basis, whether we are sharing a service provider’s new appointment hours with a client who was unable to access, or when we offer to walk a client who has been sleeping outside to a shelter so they don’t have to go alone. This adaptiveness and mission to serve the community in its entirety is what I believe makes the work we do so invaluable.
The reality is that though we often view the problem of homelessness as an isolated issue, impacting only those experiencing or working in it, the impacts of homelessness are felt at every level of the community. As such, addressing it requires a community wide approach. Our goal is not to go into a situation expecting to fix it. Rather, our hope is that by providing the support and belonging that each individual and situation requires, we empower and build capacity with all our stakeholders. Joining the Outreach Fort Collins team, I am energized to engage with the many and diverse ways homelessness impacts our community and grateful to be a part of OFC’s restorative work.