Truck provides a lift to helping homeless Donation of truck to make a big difference
Dozens of individuals gathered Wednesday morning to celebrate the dedication of a new vehicle to be used by the Navigation Center/ Welcome Center for its homeless outreach at the river. The vehicle was donated by Anthem Blue Cross.
“I’m excited, ecstatic, and very humbled,” said Narciso “Cheech” Flores, case manager at Central California Family Crisis Center, permanent supportive housing, and one of the designated drivers of the new vehicle. “This is going to help a l lot. I’m grateful for the donation.”
Currently, outreach to the river involves individuals using their own vehicles or dropping off items at the river’s edge.
The vehicle, a 2006 white Ford F-150 FX4 Off Road pickup has skid plates to protect the undercarriage, off-road shocks, hill descent control and all-terrain tires. It also has a hydraulic Tommy lift designed to move heavy loads in and out of the pick-up.
“Whenever we get donations, we can now pick up big crates at a time with less physical labor,” Flores said.
The program began with a welcome by Christina Clausen, chief executive officer at the Porterville Chamber of Commerce.
Clausen introduced Mary Culver, executive director of the Central California Family Crisis Center, who then talked about the crisis center, which has been providing services in the community since 1977.
Culver stated the mission of the crisis center was to protect individuals and families from domestic violence and economic deprivation by providing food, shelter, counseling and other charitable services.
“Our vision is to develop programs and other services that most effectively meet the demand and distinctive needs of its homeless, domestic violence clients, at risk families and their children,” Culver said.
She thanked Anthem Blue Cross for the vehicle.
“With the generous funds received by Anthem Blue Cross, we were able to purchase
the HOP — Homeless Outreach Program — truck to better serve our homeless individuals and families in our community with food, water, hygiene items, clothing, health screenings, supportive services and referrals. We thank Anthem Blue Cross for partnering with us.”
Richard Osborne, board member of the CCFCC, talked about the center’s start and history.
“The shelter now serves over 800 victims of domestic violence and homelessness annually,” Osborne said before talking about the wide array of services offered to the homeless, and the mechanism for gathering data pertaining to the number of homeless in the area, their reason for being homeless, and the duration of their homelessness.
Osborne also talked of the new program, Local Initiatives Navigation Centers (LINC) which replaced Project Homeless Connect.
“The idea was to provide the same services as before but on a much more frequent basis and at one consistent location — the Navigation Center, also known as the Welcome Center.”
As the transition was taking place, employees and volunteers from the Family Crisis Center, who had been making frequent trips to the homeless encampments for years, decided to formalize their efforts and instituted the Homeless Outreach Project.
HOP members hold monthly planning meetings and make monthly outreach visits to homeless encampments to distribute hygiene kits, resource information and other needed items each month, Osborne said.
“The Homeless Outreach Project is also working diligently to develop partnerships with local churches, service clubs, and other organizations that are looking for ways to make an impact on the problem of homelessness in our area but not sure of how to best get involved,” Osborn said. “They can collect hygiene kits, solar lamps or other needed items and we can escort some of their members to the encampments so they can give what they have collected, or we will distribute the goods for them.”
Other speakers included Nancy Palafox, Navigation Center Program Director, who talked about the services provided.
Since opening a year ago, they have helped 1,762 homeless individuals.
Patricia Torres with Anthem Blue Cross said she was honored and took pride in being a part of the initiatives and connecting with the community in general.
Selena Escobar, program director of Special Programs, Anthem Blue Cross, also said she was proud to be considered a partner with local clinicians and health centers.
“A few months ago we heard about the need of a vehicle to take up the road to the homeless encampments and individuals,” Escobar said. “Otherwise, there would be no access of services — physical and mental health services — if it was not brought directly to them. It hit home. We said ‘Yes. We’re on board,’ and we are honored to be here to unveil it.”
And with that, a purple ribbon was cut in front of the new truck.
“The work that HOP is doing will be enhanced tremendously by the truck that was so generously donated to us by Anthem Blue Cross,” Osborne said. “We can not thank them enough. Having this truck with a lift gate is going to be amazing.”