ST. GEORGE – Volunteers will be assigned to their teams and areas during a training tonight at 5 p.m. for a volunteer project to help the homeless. Tonight’s gathering will be at the St. George City Hall located at 175 East 200 North and will prepare volunteers for the Point-In-Time project in which they will count, survey and distribute supplies to the homeless in Washington County. The PIT will be taking place on Jan. 30, 31 and Feb. 1 starting at 3 a.m. on all three days.
Approximately 35 new volunteers signed up after the first training on Jan. 22 and so a second training was added.Volunteers who were able to attend the training on Jan. 22 are asked to come to the training tonight to receive team and area assignments.
While happy to have had so many volunteers attend the first training, Carol Hollowell, who’s heading up the efforts, said that if there were more volunteers they could reach more people.
“I think that if we had at least 100 more, then we would be able to hit more areas,” Hollowell said. “It puts a burden on those teams to rush through things instead of being able to do the best services that they can at those spots. So the more volunteers we have, the more items we can give back to them, the more services we can help them with.”
The volunteers will be going in teams to well-known areas where the homeless congregate. Volunteers will then document each homeless person and survey their overall health, reasons for homelessness and provide them with food, blankets, coats, hats and other services.
Goals of the Point-in-Time campaign also include locating shelter and finding causes of homelessness in an attempt to help homeless individuals.
“We are not just doing a count to pat ourselves on the back, we want to do the count and give them the services that they want as soon as we can,” Hollowell said.
Those who cannot attend the PIT can donate items such as blankets, socks, gloves, toiletries, first aid supplies, water, backpacks, coats, nonperishable food and other basic items.
Resources
- Volunteer Center of Washington County | 198 North 100 East in St. George | Telephone 435-674-5757 | Facebook page | Volunteers invited to visit, sign up
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