April Director’s Report

by VVHC | Apr 2, 2022 | VVHC Latest News

Hello Everyone,

Happy April. I am sure this month has us all busy, tax season, Easter, for me a granddaughter’s birthday, a wedding, and a small family reunion… I wish everyone a safe month. The past month sure has been busy.

Transitional Housing

We are thrilled that our tenant has vacated the premises next door and left us a beautiful home that we will soon be able to move clients into. Our Tuesday volunteers from Spectrum gave it a good cleaning and a group will be in this weekend to move and set up the furniture that we have been collecting. This will be clearing out quite a bit of space in our storage area so that is very welcome. 

On the Town

I had the privilege of speaking to the congregation at Spirit of Joy. They are a generous group since I recognize many of them as dropping things by the center frequently. I also got a chance to meet Torrey Barcanic who has written our holiday letter the past 2 years. They are a very supportive group and I appreciate that they invited me.

Donations and Funding

Even as I type I am seeing a UPS man unloading our latest delivery from Bombas socks. They sent us 5,000 pairs! I do not know how they arrived at that number, but we have them! I also received notice last week that they are sending another shipment in December… socks for everyone!

We did experience the happy news this month that we were the recipient of a grant from EFSP (Emergency Food and Shelter Program) in the amount of $60,554. This grant specifically is for Mass Shelter. 

I received notice this month that DES has some new requirements for us regarding insurance and background checks. We are now required to have all employees and volunteers fingerprinted within 10 days of hire. Carol has been working with the insurance people to make the necessary changes and I have been working on the staff and volunteers. The necessity for a part time case manager grows. I am very hopeful that we will find just the right person to fit this need. 

 At the Center

Our employees continue to carry on steadily. 

 We had 13 new people this month and for the first time ever more people used the overnight center than the day center. 

All the best,

Rhonda Bishop

Executive Director

March Director’s Report

by VVHC | Mar 2, 2022 | VVHC Latest News

Hello Everyone, Another month gone so quickly!  I hope everyone had a happy February!

Property Owners!

I am sure we are all still thrilled that this long and tedious journey to land ownership is over.  Logically we all know the amount of work that is just beginning but I hope everyone takes a moment to really be grateful that we have the amazing team of Peter, Carol, and John that put everything together, attended the meetings, rolled their eyes at the attorneys, and never let go of this dream of furthering our mission.

Busy at the Center

We have had a busy month here at the center.  We had a lot of new people coming in, unfortunately many of them this month have been young.  Due to the recent cold temperatures, I had to institute a “seniors first” policy since we just don’t have enough beds and that group needs a little extra care in weather extremes.

Fire News

We had an inspector out a couple weeks ago to do the final fire inspection on the warehouse.  He sent his report over the weekend and concluded that the fire was caused by the bathroom fan which the Fire Marshall had also concluded.  Over the weekend Service Master came out to see how many dumpsters they would need to clean out the building this week or next.  We have so much that needs to be salvaged and not a whole lot of time or manpower to do it.  Realistically we just need to make it till next month when we will take possession of all the buildings next door and will have a whole lot more room to put things.  Carol is working on some temporary storage and manpower which hopefully will solve the issues.

Around Town

I was asked by a representative of the Chamber if we would be interested in hosting a chamber mixer this spring, I talked it over with Carol and we both think it would be a good idea to show the Chamber members the house we are going to be using for transitional housing and the land that we will be building on.  The woman next door will be gone, and it will give us a couple weeks to have the place cleaned and hope that there are not too many repairs that have to happen.   We do have some furniture that can be moved in, I hope everyone will plan on being there.   The date is April 21 from 6 to 8 PM.

Meal Times at the Center

Right now, due to storage space or lack of, we are only providing meals on days and times when there is not another meal happening (The Mission or Picnic in the Park).  Of course, we still have cereal and PB&J, so no one goes hungry.

All for now,

Rhonda Bishop

Executive Director

February Director’s Report

by VVHC | Feb 2, 2022 | VVHC Latest News

Well, what a beginning to this year! It’s certainly not how I thought this year would begin but I hope this gets our share of bad luck out of the way! I spent all morning trying to salvage things from the warehouse or other “deal with immediately” issues.

Center Guests

It has been a busy month, we had 17 new people, had a total of 537 overnight and 652 during the day. Of the 17 new faces, only 3 were from the Cottonwood area. I have taken a very firm stance that we cannot house people requiring medical attention as we are not licensed to care for people who have medical needs. However, our criteria are very lenient: you must be nice, not cause trouble, you must be able to feed and toilet yourself, you must be able to get yourself up and down off the cot unaided and any assistive device you have must not block or inhibit travel down any path or walkway.

Fire Update

So, the fire. This has been an experience I never wanted to have but, here we are! We found out today that our washer and dryer can be saved. Two of the small freezers are working though one is iffy. Eventually it will have to go but for now it is keeping frozen food frozen. We saved some paper products, coffee and of course the ramen is safe (through fire, storm, and pestilence I’m sure). Bedding, towels, and washcloths can be saved after laundry. The women’s area was hardly affected so we will be able to salvage some of the jackets and clothing though those are less priority than our bedding. We had a couple volunteers today which was terrific as they did a lot of the heavy moving. They hooked up the washer and thank goodness the sun shines here as we will be using solar for our dryer! Overall, the community has been so very supportive, I have had multiple calls every day asking what people can do to help. I have had so far $1500 in donations specifically for goods we might need that were destroyed. Groups such as Sedona Verde Valley Association of Realtors, Verde Community Church, House of Ruth, Head Start teachers, On the Greens, Cottonwood Commons, Living Water, Clarkdale Jerome School District, JPS, Manzanita, and so many more agencies/ businesses, not to mention individual community members have all inquired as to what they can do to support us. It is overwhelming how much care and concern this tragedy has generated in our neighbors. Our staff has continued to be strong, especially through this whole incident. They’ve got a “get it done” attitude!

Out on the Town

My talk at the Networking for Solutions meeting went well. I was surprised at how many people were not familiar with us. All there represented a portion of people that are marginalized and are desperate for housing. Elderly, unsheltered, felons, victims of DV, single parents with families, family members caring for elderly family members, a whole cross section of forgotten people. I think it was an eye opener for everyone to hear of the difficulties all of us have not only with housing but with acceptance and support as well.

Taxes and Donations

I recorded our spot for the AZ tax credit with the radio last week and it began broadcasting this week. It will air 3 days a week for 5 weeks so a good bit of coverage before tax time. Most nonprofits ask for the tax credit donation this time of year, so I went a little different route. I chose to remind people that we as taxpayers in AZ have the right to choose to make a donation in leu of sending money to the state. While we (VVHC) would love to take that tax credit donation there are many local non-profits that could use the money and why not keep it here in the valley helping our neighbors. I figure if only one married couple is influenced to give us their donation, we will have more than paid for the advertisement and hopefully I will have encouraged more people to keep their money local.

Rhonda Bishop

Executive Director

January Director’s Report

by VVHC | Jan 2, 2022 | VVHC Latest News

Well friends, here we find ourselves entering 2022!  What a year of change this has been for us as an organization.  I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for what you have done to help us grow.  All our roles, no matter how great or small, are a vital part of our continued success.

 All about the holidays

We made it through another holiday season successfully!  We had quite a spread for Christmas.  For appetizers we had tapenade on dill crackers, salmon salad zucchini rolls, cranberry glazed smoked sausage bites, baked potato rounds with pimento cheese, and chili cheese dip with corn chips.  Our soup course was a turkey posole with all the toppings and our main dish was enchiladas (donated by Adriana’s Mexican Food in Old Town), tacos (donated by the people from Bahai Faith) beans and rice. And dessert was a variety of pies and a sheet cake (also donated by Bahai Faith).   Roxanne and Jim from Bahai Faith came to volunteer on Christmas as did Dustin (who is the Regional Manager for SNAP fitness and just wanted to do a little good on Christmas).  We had a lot of fun chatting and visiting with the center guests and watched A Christmas Story on an endless loop.  A special thanks to the knitters and crocheters of the valley for donating enough hats and scarves and to volunteers who made sure everyone received a gift.  It was incredible to have the support to make a great day for all. We had enough soup for another day! The new year was very quiet.

Participation this month

We saw a total of 626 people use the day center in December and 410 spent the night.   We saw 15 new faces this month.  Of course, many are the transient unsheltered which come, stay a few weeks or months, and then disappear but some have recently fallen into homelessness for a variety of reasons I managed to place an elderly, disabled female vet with US Vets in a program that will house her up to 2 years with the possibility of further placement depending on her condition and how her needs change.  We have developed a great relationship with US Vets, they are a very good organization.

Volunteers

The ladies from Spectrum continue to come each week.   They have been incredibly helpful going through the MOUNTAINS of donations we have received during December.  The program supervisor did allow us to take a small gift to each of the ladies (a little lotion and soap that was donated but we don’t have that many women) for Christmas.   We also gained a new Monday volunteer which is helpful, Monday’s can be busy for me most weeks.

Out on the town

I have been asked to speak at the Networking for Solutions meeting this month and we will be participating in the PIT count which is taking place on January 25 and requires me to make the trip to Prescott for planning at least once this month since Catholic Charities and we are the primary people working the east side of Yavapai county.  A bit of good news for those of you that have seen my pile of sanitizer and masks, we can donate some to the PIT count volunteers since they will be using it in the field.

All for now,

Rhonda Bishop

Executive Director