WOOD RIVER - Unhoused community members and local nonprofits are invited to engage with one another at Project Homeless Connect.
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From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, at Riverbend Family Ministries in Wood River, approximately 30 nonprofit organizations will be available to answer questions, connect people with resources and provide services for individuals experiencing homelessness. Unhoused community members and those who want to learn more about local nonprofits and how to help are all invited.
“We want to connect homeless folks. We’re trying to connect them with resources,” said David Kerr, Madison County’s Homeless Program Coordinator. “It's also an opportunity for other agencies to network with each other. There can be so many agencies that it’s difficult to keep up, and there’s new ones popping up all the time, so it’s kind of hard to know at times. But this is a chance to try and get together in one place.”
Attendees can receive wellness and vision exams, vaccines, bus tokens and showers while learning more about local assistance available to them, including legal assistance, veteran services, career and housing resources, and more. If you present the flier below, you can ride MCT buses to and from the event for free courtesy of Madison County Transit.
Kerr explained that Project Homeless Connect is an annual event sponsored by Madison County Community Development, the county office that oversees community assistance programs like the Homeless Program.
This year’s event is hosted by Riverbend Family Ministries at 144 E. Ferguson Avenue in Wood River. Rachel Craddick, the Fund Development Director at RFM, expressed the organization’s enthusiasm to be involved and help people access services.
“It’s kind of a one-stop shop,” Craddick said. “There’s so many great agencies throughout Madison County doing great work, but sometimes it’s difficult to really get everybody together and really understand what’s available. So that’s really the heart of this day, making sure that we can bring all these great services together and share information with the people that need it the most.”
Craddick added that RFM strives to connect people with services year-round, and the Project Homeless Connect event gives them a better understanding of what resources are available in the community. Agencies are encouraged to network and share more about their work so that they can refer people to each other as needed.
“As a social service agency, we really strive to be able to share resources, whether that’s ones that we have under our roof, but also we’re well-connected within the community to make sure if there’s not a service we offer, that someone else does,” Craddick said. “The more that we can stand alongside that person and help them make those phone calls or be there when one resource might be a dead end, that really ensures that people can get the help that they need and that these resources are accessible for everyone.”
Kerr noted that the event takes place the day after the Point-in-Time Count, which counts unhoused individuals on a night in January every year. This count gives the county a better understanding of how many individuals in the community are experiencing homelessness and how they are utilizing county programs.
Project Homeless Connect will allow community members and organizations to connect, share resources and receive assistance. For more information about the event, people are encouraged to contact Sara Hopkins at (618) 296-4650 or David Kerr at (618) 296-4442. You can also visit the official Madison County Community Development Facebook page or webpage for more information about local programs for unhoused community members.
“We really strive to eliminate those barriers people face to rebuild in their life, and we’re so proud to be able to host an event like this that really brings people together versus trying to do this really difficult work separately,” Craddick added. “It’s a really beautiful testament to all the great work going on in the community, and our ability to really make a difference to people that need it most.”