News: Our Volunteers Know Everyone Counts

From the Spring 2009 Newsletter

This is a very special thank you to the 169 volunteers who donated their time in both training and conducting over 1,200 interviews for the Homeless Count. Volunteering for the Homeless Count requires not only time in the field, but attending a training session on how to conduct quality interviews. The Homeless Count provides vital information on trends and needs in Alameda County and is mandated to receive federal homeless assistance funds. Interviews were held at 27 randomly chosen sites throughout Alameda County on January 27, 2009.

Our top recruiters also deserve special acknowledgement; Brett Keteles of the Alameda Sheriff’s department and Susan Muranishi, Alameda County administrator. Thanks to Brett and Susan, the call for our volunteer needs was answered by many of the very generous people in their organizations.

As the sites we interview at are randomly chosen, we depend on the generosity and collaboration of many groups that provide services to homeless and very low income persons to host our teams. These agencies, organizations, and congregations open their spaces to EveryOne Home volunteers so that we may conduct the count. Thank you to the 27 sites who hosted us this year!

Our research partners Speiglman Norris Associates and UC Berkeley Survey Research Center continue to work diligently on the data collected by our volunteers. Results from the Homeless Count are expected by this summer. EveryOne Home will be hosting events in the release of these results so be sure to join our mailing list.

Survey says…

Results from our volunteer evaluations and survey found that:
• 100% of site coordinators would volunteer again
• 98.5 % of volunteers would volunteer again
• 90% of volunteers would encourage their friends and families to sign-up for the next Homeless Count