The Power Of Outreach

When I'm on the street working with folks, it's rare that I have a large success, such as getting someone into housing. To me, that's a biggie. To be sure, I've put a number of peeps into transitional and permanent housing, but most successes are small, barely worth mentioning here. Meeting new folks and providing them some hope for an end to their misery in the near future; getting bus passes into the hands of someone who truly needs them and won't sell or trade them for a cold 40 or a lick of rock: referring someone into a rehab or a day program; getting someone a tent or some cothes and/or shoes; filling a script for someone suffering from a toothache or infection; getting someone a food box; those are the daily successes I'm most familiar with. On last Friday however, I experienced a rather unique success that to me, ranks right up there with housing; in fact, it may be even better than housing. I got someone out of jail on Friday. Let me clarify. I didn't actually physically open the door for her, but I was able to provide a judge, with a little help from my colleague in the jail division, with enough information on a client that she allowed that client to be released into my custody in order to begin community service and some treatment for her mental health issues. She was released 9 days early because of my advocacy. Doesn't seem like much to those who've never been to jail but let me assure you, each day spent locked down is like a week free on the street. My client was thrilled, to say the least. So was her mother, her fiancé and her children. Her crime was stupid and old. She had been doing well for months, just happened to be in the wrong place when a cop showed up and ran everyone's IDs. Her name triggered an old bench warrant and away she went. So she's out, I picked her up Friday afternoon from the main jail over on Harding Place. She's free, with her man and her family, and I'm elated. Probably not nearly as much as she..... Mega-thanks to "he knows who" for facilitating the court appearance for me....