Category: Services

Sixth graders from Georgetown Day School visited GMC on April 8 to distribute sandwiches and learn about homelessness. Staff talked to the students about why people are homeless, what GMC does to help them, and what other ways to help exist. When they went back to school, the class reflected on what they learned and shared it with us. Read their thoughts below the picture!

What we learned:

There are many cool things in Georgetown such as shops and food, but some people have trouble seeing the people on the street. Georgetown Ministry Center notices these homeless people and takes them in and helps them.

Georgetown Ministry Center provides a daytime shelter for homeless single adults. They provide hot showers and laundry machines. They also provide computers for people to contact their families and keep updated on current events and social media. Georgetown Ministry Center also provides an outreach program where doctors go around the community checking on the homeless community. We met doctor Michael Morse, a physiatrist, who helps people get over their addictions and helps them with their feelings and depressions.

While Georgetown Ministry Center is a daytime shelter, they also have volunteers from Georgetown University to help them with night time shifts. The volunteers are students and faculty. During the nights that are below freezing they check on the homeless to make sure they don’t have hypothermia. They also pass out hats, gloves, socks, blankets, and we have heard of situations where they have saved lives.

During the winter months of November through March, Georgetown Ministry Center invites ten people to stay at a night time shelter. They try to invite five women and five men, these people are continuously rotated between ten different churches. People are invited if they are either ready for housing, ready for a job, or in bad health.

Our Reflection:

When we walked into the building we saw a few people sitting around at tables either drinking coffee or at the computers. We made sandwiches and passed them out. It was kind of scary, but it was nice to see the smiles on their faces. The reason it was scary was because not a lot of them looked happy. It was a large change from our regular environment. Overall, we felt empowered because we took a step out of our comfort zone and helped a community. Thank you Georgetown Ministry Center and the homeless community.

This has been a brutally winter. The entire city has been working extremely hard to make sure no one dies from exposure this season. In addition to the hypothermia vans and shelters, this year the city started stationing warming buses throughout the city, where the homeless can board and warm up for 30 minutes, 3 hours, the entire night… however long they need. We have heard great feedback from our homeless guests and other providers about the success of these buses.

Still, there are people who are sleeping outside, whose mental illness prevents them from coming inside, or who think they are strong enough to brave the cold, wind, and snow. During the day, GMC staff and our medical team checks on these individuals. However, we can’t often do outreach at night, when people are most vulnerable.

And so, we decided to create a group of volunteers to do street outreach for us when it gets cold and when the weather’s supposed to be bad.

Read more…

Georgetown University students Ryan Fan and Zohaib Khalid wanted to learn more about the homeless living in Georgetown, so for their Leadership class, they set out to create a video capturing some of their stories, feelings, and thoughts.

Here is what they learned.

We often host students from out of state for service projects or alternative spring breaks. Last Thursday, we were able to introduce students from Howard University to the issue of homelessness that occurs right in their city. Staying local for their spring break, these students visited various sites in D.C. to learn about an issue that is so prevalent in their backyard.

GMC staff designed a survey for our members to help us develop a better understanding of the population we serve and what they need. Among standard questions such as age, we also wanted to know what benefits people already had versus what they need, as well as what health issues our members have and whether or not they are receiving treatment. We had these students from Howard survey and chat with our members, and then we took them to do street outreach so that they could survey the people we regularly see on the street.

Special thanks to Natalie, a senior at Howard University, for organizing the group!

Recently, we’ve been posting about all of the colleges and college groups that have been involved with GMC. College students aren’t the only ones who care, though. Last Thursday, a group of students from Sidwell Friends School came to do street outreach with GMC.

They brought with them not only tons of energy and enthusiasm, but also probably the best bagged lunches we’ve seen to date: turkey and cheese sandwiches, an apple, baby carrots and bell pepper slices, a bag of pretzels, a bag of cookies, and a juice box. WOW! That’s a lot of food crammed into a brown paper lunch bag.

After doing outreach with us, they reflected on their experience:

Coming to Georgetown Ministry Center, we have had many eye-opening experiences.  We have learned so much about the causes of homelessness, as well as the day-to-day reality of those who live on the street.  We now know that many homeless people suffer from mental illnesses, and that many even have families who care about them, but aren’t able to take care of them.  It made us happy to see how much the people we met appreciated the lunches we made for them, and we enjoyed talking to them and hearing their stories.  We also realized that sometimes homeless people can feel ignored and invisible, and that just making contact can brighten their day.  We love coming to Georgetown Ministry Center, and we hope to come again soon!

Thank you, Sidwell Friends, and we hope to see you again soon!