Today Is Homelessness Awareness Day!

Dear Trojan Shelter Family,

Today is National Homelessness Awareness Day! If you are on this mailing list, then you are well aware of homelessness. What you also know is that college homelessness is an issue that many people are not aware of. Days like today, and every other day, we stay strong in our mission to both house college students experiencing homelessness and raise awareness of the issue of college homelessness at large.

Because of that, I am so excited to show you a video Rachel Priebe and I have been working on these last few weeks. This video talks about college homelessness and ways you can support our mission and the cause. For many of you who have been part of our community since the beginning, you are already veterans about both the issue and advocating the issue, but there is a good chance the people in your networks are not. Share it with them and let them know about this mission you have been following since early last spring. Each conversation you have about college homelessness already brings a huge positive impact because of how few people actually know about the issue.

Just last Saturday we brought almost 20 of our volunteers to help clean the space. There was work to do, but our volunteers were more than ready. It is crazy to see how much our volunteers are putting into the mission. From mopping floors, cleaning toilets, organizing lots of random items, taking inventory, and moving furniture, it was truly amazing to slowly see this space turn into a home.

Already, so many people have shown dedication to the mission in ways outside of advocacy and volunteering. We are expecting donations of food, beds, computers, toiletries, and so many other necessities it takes to make our space a place to live. Soon our staff leads will be helping compile a cookbook for our volunteers to create nourishing meals for our residents.

As our opening of Trojan Shelter is less than a month away, our volunteer group of 63 await our intense staff training scheduled to happen in a couple of weeks. RA and Director of Staff Hannah Mulroe plan to train us in mental health preparedness, mediation, shift training, scenario training, cooking, and more. This is truly happening, and pretty soon we will have a massive group of capable individuals ready to staff our home.

I’m going to say it again… Trojan Shelter is opening in less than a month!! As much work that has been done already, we still have so much more to do. Trojan Shelter has launched a crowdfunding campaign in preparation for our opening. Tax-deductible donations will go primarily toward rent, insurance, and utilities for our housing space, as well as food, clothing, and toiletries for our residents. Please share this with your community as each dollar donated contributes to creating a stable foundation for our residents to succeed in higher education.

Our Trojan Shelter family is truly awe-inspiring. College homelessness is just starting to get addressed. Though we may have been one of the first to start creating solutions, the amount of support the mission has gotten is truly the more impressive feat. Seeing all of our volunteers, partners, mentors, donors, friends, and allies already joining us gives me a deep hope and optimism that one-day college homelessness will be eradicated. This movement is just getting started.

Thank you so much for your continuous support. As always, I will be updating you monthly about all things Trojan Shelter.

Sincerely,

Matthew Lee, Director of Media

For more information about Trojan Shelter, go to trojanshelter.org

To help support us financially, go to trojanshelter.org/donate. Make sure to specify that your tax-deductible donation will be going to Trojan Shelter!