Sidewalk Project

Mat - in 2023 and with the funding from sierra health foundation, we expanded our programming to offer some of our participants the access to mat, (medically assisted treatment), through partnering organizations like baart methadone clinic. Many of our unhoused, drug-using participants want to get off deadly opiates and through our Sidewalk Project community, general outreach, art and music classes and other community events, we have identified participants who want to gain access to treatments such as methadone, suboxone for opiate use as well as vivance or adderall for stimulant use. We offer advocacy in medical / clinical settings, rides to and from methadone clinics and medical / clinical settings, education on the use of mat, emergency hotel room stays for induction to suboxone and methadone or even to talk someone through making the change of medicines. We help people through all facets of using mat as a way to get off of the substances that cause crisis and chaotic life on the streets. Expanded funding gave us the opportunity to continue employment for many including leadership, to hire on two more case managers, driver and coordinator positions to our team. It also allowed us to bring on 5 contractors for social media, evaluation, advocacy, strategic partnerships and trauma informed case management.

Peer empowerment through employment - in 2023 and with this funding from the national harm reduction coalition initiative funding we were able to continue employment for many of our employees including leadership. We were also able to continue our ssp harm reduction program in skid row and macarthur park areas of los angeles, ca. Through our ssp program we collect used syringes and pipes from public spaces and distribute clean ones, slowing the spread of many communicable diseases. This work allows us to go really deep with our street-based participants in active drug use. Deep connections allow us to offer further wellness options to people experiencing homelessness in the form of wrap around services such as; housing, wound care, medical care, distributing narcan to push back against overdose, helping women fleeing intimate partner violence, crisis response, mat, advocacy in legal settings and courts, harm reduction education, covid response, sti testing and treatment, hiv testing and treatment, covid testing and treatment, community building classes and events such as art and music, self-defense and pelvic health. We do outreach 2-3 times a week in both skid row and mac arthur park and within our drop-in center in skid row we have been able to keep women safe from the streets, while offering them the above-mentioned warp-around services. We distribute harm reduction kits as well as hygiene kits as well as wound care supplies and just about anything our unhoused participants need that fall within the scope of work of the grant and what is allowable in our approved budgets.

Community reinvestment: skid row drop-in day center - in 2023 and with continued funding from calcrg and its community reinvestment funding we were able to keep our skid row drop-in day center up and running. We were able to continue employment for those employed by this grants funding. Our drop-in day center is home to many unhoused women in both the skid row and macarthur park areas of los angeles. Our day center offers our participants a safe place where they can do art, color, play music, listen to music or watch tv, get a warm meal or a cold water and have a place of community. We offer art classes, yoga and meditation classes, trauma informed therapy sessions, parties, trainings. We also offer day work programs that allow unhoused women the opportunity to make a small stipend for making harm reduction kits for our outreach or for cleaning the space. This has been great is seeing what participants are ready to take the next step in employment. We have hired from our participant population and make it a priority to elevate people up from the community we serve. We also offer wrap around services to all of our participants which includes; housing, medical care, mat, wound care, medical advocacy, legal advocacy, harm reduction supplies and education, intimate violence counselling and advocacy, linkage to all social services and benefits, food, water, art, music and trauma informed care.

Other programs including staff wellness program, self defence, cadf, ccswg, cfci-amity, covid mitigation program.