Results for the December 19th Health and Vision Event at Old First Presbyterian in San Francisco

Hear stories and see pictures from our event:

Today at Old First Presbyterian Church we held another San Francisco Health and Vision Event: 45 individuals were connected to prescription eye glasses, 40 had their portraits taken by photographer Vince Donovan, 21 individuals visited nurses, 15 people got follow up appointments with social workers at Project Homeless Connect's Every Day Connect, 11 people signed up for Assurance cell phones, others learned about the upcoming changes to health insurance, received lunch, socks, chocolate and clothing.


A big thank you to all the partners and volunteers who made today's event a sucess, including:

• Old First Presbyterian Church
• Welcome
• St. Paulus Lutheran Church
• Project Homeless Connect
• SF PATH
• Vince Donovan
• SF CARES
• The Castro Lions Club

Individuals connected to prescription glasses since our project began: 123

Press Release: Holiday Event Provides Glasses for Homeless San Franciscans

Holiday Event Provides Glasses for Homeless San Franciscans

SF CARES and Project Homeless Connect (PHC) are hosting an event on December 19^th from 12-4pm at Old First Presbyterian Church (1751 Sacramento St near Van Ness) to provide prescription eye glasses and other health opportunities for low income and homeless individuals.   Additional monthly Health and Vision Events will be hosted at Lutheran congregations throughout San Francisco with the goal of giving away 1,200 pairs of prescription glasses by December of 2014. 

"Glasses make it possible for individuals to fill out job and health forms, read for pleasure and tangibly improve their lives," Pastor Megan Rohrer, of SF CARES, remarked, "We hope our event will help people build with a relationship PHC’s Every Day Connect Resource Specialists, who will follow up with participants after the event to help them continue to improve their quality of life."

“Collaborating with like minded partners in caring those who are vulnerable is the common sense means of being effective.  As for us, loving the neighbor in the best way possible is our goal,” said Pastor Daniel Solberg, of SF CARES.  “We are excited to partner with the city, local businesses and other San Franciscans to do our part to help those who are homeless and in need.”

Services expected to be provided include: eye exams and prescription glasses, portraits, free lunch, books and toiletries, flu shots for individuals with Medicare (provided by Walgreen’s), nurses for asking questions and other health related services.

"We hope this project will inspire others to do what they can to help people experiencing homelessness and hunger  in San Francisco," said Emily Cohen, Director of Programs and Project Homeless Connect.

SF CARES is a collaboration of St. Paulus Lutheran Church, The Night Ministry, Welcome and the Faithful Fools Street Ministry; all faithful organization who are working together in order to increase our ability to help the underserved in San Francisco.  We are particularly passionate about providing opportunities, resources and support for individual who are poor, homeless, formerly homeless and experiencing mental health or brain disorder issues.  

Project Homeless Connect’s mission is to connect homeless San Franciscans 
with the care they need to move forward. PHC’s Every Day Connect  works directly with those seeking services, seven days week, 365 days a year. The purpose is to connect those in need with the appropriate providers and hard-to-access resources they need to move forward toward their goals.

Contact Information:
Pastor Daniel Solberg, 415-673-8088, Solberg@saintpaulus.org
Pastor Megan Rohrer, 415-827-2587, megan@welcomeministry.org

Emily Cohen,  855-588-7968, Emily.Cohen@sfdph.org

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Update on December 19th Event

We hope to see you all Thursday, from 12-4pm at Old First Presbyterian  (1751 Sacramento near Van Ness) for our Health and Vision Event.  Here are a few updates about the activities that will be at the event.

First, our phoropters have not arrived yet, so we will not be able to have eye exams at this event.  Instead, we will be signing individuals up for an unadvertised event where they can get their exams and will have appointment slots, so they don't have to wait around all day.  Only individuals who have signed up at our event or through the special outreach of SF CARES will be able to participate in this opportunity. Exams will be available at our January event. 

We have also learned that Walgreen's will not be joining us to provide flu shots for individuals on Medicare A and B.

The following are the current list of confirmed opportunities for our event on Thursday:

• Nurses
• Photography
• Project Homeless Connect's Every Day Connect (sign up for free cell phone service)
• SF PATH (signing up for health care)
• Lunch
• Clothing
• Socks
• Books
• Signing up for prescription glasses

Press Release: For Immediate Release

Holiday Event Provides Glasses for Homeless San Franciscans

SF CARES and Project Homeless Connect (PHC) are hosting an event on December 19th from 12-4pm at Old First Presbyterian Church (1751 Sacramento St near Van Ness) to provide prescription eye glasses and other health opportunities for low income and homeless individuals. Additional monthly Health and Vision Events will be hosted at Lutheran congregations throughout San Francisco with the goal of giving away 1,200 pairs of prescription glasses by December of 2014. 

"Glasses make it possible for individuals to fill out job and health forms, read for pleasure and tangibly improve their lives," Pastor Megan Rohrer, of SF CARES, remarked, "We hope our event will help people build a relationship PHC’s Every Day Connect Resource Specialists, who will follow up with participants after the event to help them continue to improve their quality of life."

“Collaborating with like minded partners in caring for those who are vulnerable is the common sense means of being effective. As for us, loving the neighbor in the best way possible is our goal,” said Pastor Daniel Solberg, of SF CARES. “We are excited to partner with the city, local businesses and other San Franciscans to do our part to help those who are homeless and in need.”

Services expected to be provided include: eye exams and prescription glasses, portraits, free lunch, books and toiletries, flu shots for individuals with Medicare (provided by Walgreen’s), nurses for asking questions and other health related services.

"We hope this project will inspire others to do what they can to help people experiencing homelessness and hunger in San Francisco," said Emily Cohen, Director of Programs and Project Homeless Connect.

SF CARES is a collaboration of St. Paulus Lutheran Church, The Night Ministry, Welcome and the Faithful Fools Street Ministry; all faithful organization who are working together in order to increase our ability to help the underserved in San Francisco.  We are particularly passionate about providing opportunities, resources and support for individual who are poor, homeless, formerly homeless and experiencing mental health or brain disorder issues.   

Project Homeless Connect’s mission is to connect homeless San Franciscans 
with the care they need to move forward. PHC’s Every Day Connect works directly with those seeking services, seven days week, 365 days a year. The purpose is to connect those in need with the appropriate providers and hard-to-access resources they need to move forward toward their goals.

Contact Information: 
Pastor Daniel Solberg, 415-673-8088, Solberg@saintpaulus.org
Pastor Megan Rohrer, 415-827-2587, megan@welcomeministry.org
Emily Cohen, 855-588-7968, Emily.Cohen@sfdph.org

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Help San Francisco's Homeless Youth Get Glasses! Thursday December 19th from 12-4pm

This week, we received a stack of requests from homeless youth who need prescription glasses.  In response we've created a special Health and Vision event on Thursday, December 19th, from 12-4pm to provide at least 40 homeless youth prescription eye glasses and other needed services. 

In just two days, we've gotten confirmation that we'll be able to provide lunch, nurses, case work support from Project Homeless Connect's Every Day Connect, flu shots from Walgreens, books and toiletries and portraits at the event.

We're also hoping to provide hair cuts and other resources specifically for homeless youth. 

But, we still need your help to make our event a success. 

• Donate Funds: We are able to provide individuals with prescription glasses for an average of $50/person.  You can support the project through crowd funding for the Homeless Vision Project or donating to our partner organizations (Welcome, SF CARES and Project Homeless Connect) and indicating that you want your funds to support prescription glasses.
• Volunteer At An Event: Join us at our events.  We need volunteers to greet individuals, help serve lunch, to support other volunteers and to provide medical care (if you are properly trained and have met the standards of certification for the type of care you wish to provide).  Let us know you want to volunteer here.
• Share our Project With Your Friends On Social Networking: 
• Follow Pastor Megan Rohrer:   Facebook      Twitter
• Follow Welcome:    Facebook
• Follow SF CARES:    Facebook
• Follow Project Homeless Connect:    Facebook     Twitter

Vision Success Story

One of our participants stopped by today to show off their new pair of bi-focal glasses.  Check them out.

A big thank you to our partners and Project Homeless Connect and VSP for helping this individual get the eye glasses they desperately needed.

And thanks to all of you who are supporting our project. 

Glasses given out to date - 63

November 10, 2013 Health and Vision Event at St. Paulus Lutheran Church, San Francisco, CA

Hear stories and see pictures from our event:


Of all our participants, the one that stood out to me the most was the individual who lost his glasses when someone set him on fire.  There is some real cruelty in the world.  But at our event, we did our best to also show that there is a lot of kindness and compassion in the world.  

Of our 39 participants, 22 got connected to prescription eye glasses with Project Homeless Connect, 18 visited with nurses and had their blood pressures checked and 3 received flu shots from Walgreens.

A big thank you to all the partners and volunteers who made today's event a sucess, including:

• St. Paulus Lutheran Church
• Welcome
• Project Homeless Connect
• Walgreens
• SF CARES
• The Castro Lions Club

Prescription glasses given out since our project began: 63

Welcome and The Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity to Partner on a Kona Vision Event

Today, I met with some of the leaders at the Southernmost Lutheran Church in the U.S., the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity (LCHT) in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.



LCHT has an amazing outreach program to the local homeless population called HERO. The project brings important essential to homeless individuals, including food, socks and other items. They also provide a large meal once a month and feed about 100 local homeless folk.


In February or March, our Kona Vision Event will provide a large meal, free prescription eye glasses for 40-150 individuals and provide other much needed health care for participants.

Since arriving to talk about the event, we've already had a local offer to pay the rental fee for a venue that is easily accessible to homeless and low income participants. Grants and donations will make it possible for Welcome to bring two traveling phoropters (the equipment needed to get eye glass prescriptions), but we need to start now to raise the funds for prescription eye glasses ($25-50 per person).

If you are able or willing to help, you can donate to Welcome online or mail or drop off a donation to the Lutheran Church of the HolyTrinity (77-165 Lako Street, Kailua Kona, HI 96740-2266). However you give, be sure to note that your donation is for the Kona Vision Event.

Also, please use this link, if you'd like to volunteer at our event or receive email updates  about this project.
Mahalo!

Pastor Megan Rohrer
Executive Director
Welcome

Volunteer at San Francisco Events

November 10, 2013 Health and Vision Event - San Francisco

Join Us November 10th 
St. Paulus Lutheran Church (1541 Polk St)
San Francisco
11:30am-1pm.   

 Confirmed Services Include: 

• Flu Shots for Seniors 
• Sign up for glasses and other basic services with Project Homeless Connect's Every Day Connect
• Visit nurses who can help answer your questions 

Please share our flier with individuals and communities you think could benefit from our event.   Click on the flier to see it in a larger version.