This week’s Community Comment: Extended family

Posted by Ken on July 13, 2010 under Community Comment | Be the First to Comment

Your work is special and rewarding.  I remember about 10 or 12 years ago meeting my first “man in blue” on 86th street and Lexington Avenue.  Since then I feel The Doe Fund has become a part of my New York City family.

- an Upper East Side resident

Camp Robin Hood

Posted by Calvin on July 7, 2010 under Partnerships, Special Events | Be the First to Comment

Camp Robin Hood is not your typical summer camp. Every year it features one-week sessions in the month of June designed to engage teens whose families are involved with Robin Hood and introduce them to the work of the Robin Hood Foundation’s grant recipients through meaningful volunteer activities. Robin Hood supports more than 200 poverty-fighting organizations – including shelters, soup kitchens, job training programs, schools, health clinics, and other groups. Camp Robin Hood combines education on poverty issues, hands-on volunteering, and opportunities to hear the personal stories of program participants. The Doe Fund is fortunate to have the extraordinary support of the Foundation and we’re also delighted to participate in Camp Robin Hood every summer. This year, we hosted a group of teens who met with our Ready, Willing & Able trainees and worked side by side with them in our Community Improvement Project. Participants noted several event highlights, including talking with the trainees, hearing their stories, having lunch together, and cleaning the streets with the “men in blue.”

This week’s Community Comment: iPad. iGlad.

Posted by Ken on June 29, 2010 under Community Comment | Read the First Comment

Dear George McDonald:

I wanted to quickly share something with you that I recently experienced. I work at a firm in Manhattan and the other day I needed to meet a professional contact in Brooklyn Heights. I was runing late, and so I had to hop into a cab to make it. I was trying to prepare for the meeting, working furiously on my iPad for 30 minutes, when the cab suddenly stopped and I saw I was at my destination. As I was trying to juggle paying the cabbie packing my bag and getting to the meeting, I dropped my iPad on the ground as I was rushing out of the cab.

My first reaction was to say some words I won’t write here! But after I was done with that, I saw a man wearing a blue shirt and steering a garbage can pick up my iPad and start cleaning off the screen with the bottom of his shirt. And then he smiled and said to me “It’s not going to be that bad. Just some scratches. You’ll stille be able to read the newspaper.” He gave me the iPad and, sure enough, it wasn’t broken. There was just some scratches on the back and side. No big deal.

After I thanked him, he said it was no big deal, and that he was just happy that I wasn’t throwing it away on the ground because he’d need a bigger broom to start sweeping up iPads!

That gave me a much needed laugh, and when I told the story at my meeting, my contact and I had a laugh over that line. In fact, I think that story helped set the tone for our meeting, which ended up being really successful. (I feel like I owe that man for that line. If I can remember his name, I’ll donate an iPad to him!)

I think I had seen Doe Fund men before, but I never knew who they worked for. I assumed they were city workers. After my talk in Brooklyn, I did some more research and learned about your organization. Sounds like you’ve been around a while.

Anyway, I wanted to share this warm experience with you. Who would have guessed that a dropped iPad would lead to so much?

Thanks Again,

-Jameel Prakshad

White House announces new homeless strategy

Posted by Maire on June 28, 2010 under Did You Know?, News | Be the First to Comment

Last week, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness unveiled its plan to address homelessness in America.  We are thrilled that President Obama is paying special attention to the needs of homeless veterans, and we agree that the only way to solve homelessness is to solve its root problems.  At The Doe Fund, we believe the best way to do that is to help homeless individuals transition to paying jobs, so they can secure their OWN housing.

Read more about the White House’s plan.

Painting the town blue: Visitors appreciate Ready, Willing & Able beautifying NYC

Posted by Maire on June 23, 2010 under Community Comment | Be the First to Comment

 

“I live in Clinton, New York. My father and I are photographers, and on a recent trip to the City we encountered three painters from The Doe Fund and had a lovely conversation with them. . . . I can’t say enough how lovely these guys were. They were painting light posts and hydrants on Lexington Avenue near 61st Street.”

  –Andi Alexander

 

 

 

 

 

Community partner spotlight: Carnegie Hill CSA

Posted by Calvin on June 22, 2010 under Partnerships | Be the First to Comment

The summer CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) season is in full swing in New York City, and the Carnegie Hill CSA, a supporter since 1999, is once again teaming up with The Doe Fund. The Carnegie Hill CSA is a volunteer-operated partnership between Stonehedge Farm and several hundred member families in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Westchester and Greene Counties. The CSA generously provides free, organic produce for Ready, Willing & Able’s (RWA) food services, which prepares three nutritious meals a day for the “men in blue.” At closing time of every weekly pickup – held at the Church of the Heavenly Rest – The Doe Fund receives all vegetables that are still left, ensuring that nothing is wasted. Additionally, we receive honey from Stonehedge Farm every Thanksgiving. One of the highlights of our partnership was the collaboration of our Culinary Arts team and the CSA for a published cookbook, Recipes from America’s Small Farms (Random House Villard Press). A special thank-you goes out to our friends at the Carnegie Hill CSA!

HUD lends helping hand to homeless veterans

Posted by Ken on June 14, 2010 under News | 3 Comments to Read

 

Ending homelessness among veterans is a top priority for the VA. The issue has been the topic of numerous public forums and working groups since VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki took the department’s helm in January 2009.

Shinseki announced the framework for a plan in November that would end homelessness among veterans within five years. The plan outlined his desire to attack homelessness at the top of the “downward spiral,” addressing mental health, substance abdduse, and unemployment before veterans become homeless.

The VA estimates that more than 131,000 veterans and their families are without homes. Without the help of other federal departments, government agencies, and community outreach, Shinseki’s goals can’t be met, he said in a statement released by HUD.

Read the entire article here

 

 

 

The homeless veteran dialogue warms up in Sioux Falls

Posted by Calvin on June 7, 2010 under News | Be the First to Comment

Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota recently spoke out on the needs of homeless veterans in his home state. The news clip touches on some of the issues and barriers that we’re addressing in our own veterans program here in New York City.

Doe Fund volunteers share their “Blank”

Posted by Maire on May 28, 2010 under Partnerships | Be the First to Comment

The Doe Fund is thrilled be to partnering with NYC Service to enhance our volunteer programs.  In the past year, we have seen an enormous increase in the number of New Yorkers who offer their time and expertise to support the “men in blue.”  Read about how our NYC Civic Corps members are utilizing volunteers to make Ready, Willing & Able stronger than ever, and how they have been personally affected by their experience:

Increased volunteer engagement has given community members the opportunity to meet these wonderful men. The response is inevitably the same from both the clients and volunteers: “I didn’t know what to expect before I met you, but you’re just like me.”

Learn more about the great work The Doe Fund’s Civic Corps members are doing.

This week’s Community Comment: Gone, but still grateful

Posted by Ken on May 24, 2010 under Community Comment | Be the First to Comment

We moved out of Manhattan 6 years ago, but I still remember the “men in blue” and what good work they did in our neighborhood.  Your organization provides purpose and direction for people whom a lot of us have given up on — thank goodness you haven’t! Keep up the good work.

–Formerly on Fifth