Head and Hands Restarts Street Assistance Program
Organization Rehires Street Worker for At-Risk Youth
N.D.G. street-side assistance organization Head and Hands announced earlier this week its outreach program is finally up and running again after losing its funding two years ago.
Thanks to private donations and community fundraising, Head and Hands has rehired Sara, a full-time social worker for on-street assistance, which began on Monday.
“It’s pretty exciting to be back, the team here is so dedicated,” said Sara, whose last name was kept confidential out of consideration for her and her clients.
The organization’s outreach program was slashed following municipal budget cuts, which Sara says left a hole in the community.
“It was pretty detrimental,” she recalled. “We had to leave pretty quickly at the end and we weren’t even able to close things off with some of our clients and so it felt very [separating].”
Head and Hands has operated as an at-risk youth outreach operation since 1970.
The organization provides young parenting programs, legal council, needle exchange and various other services for clients throughout the borough.
Head and Hands had attempted to restart its outreach program in 2012 through the Aviva Community Fund competition.
The project made it through multiple rounds of online voting, placing as a finalist in the competition and winning $5,000.
“It’s such a valued part of the programming at Head and Hands and I think that they worked their butts off to try and get it going again,” said Sara.
“And we’re here finally, so it’s a really exciting time.”
