Happy February from Trojan Shelter

Dear Trojan Shelter Community,

As we come to almost a year since the COVID-19 pandemic restructured Trojan Shelter's operations, I'm incredibly proud of our perseverance and growth during the past year, and I'm very grateful to have shared this journey with you all along the way. The past month has flown by. With the onset of the new semester, Trojan Shelter has been hard at work this month to continue improving our operations and helping students experiencing homelessness.

At the start of February, our RAs took the residents on a group hike to Griffith Park (pictured above). Excursions like these allow our residents to have fun outdoors as a household! Last month, we had one resident move out and welcomed another resident in. We currently have one space available and have reopened intake to fill that bed in the upcoming weeks to reach full capacity. Trojan Shelter's caseworkers from the USC Dworak-Peck School of Social Work are continuing to support the residents in finding stable housing by the end of the school year and in their lives as students. 

Last month, we accepted new student volunteers into the organization and have had a few meetings with our new cohort. It's deeply inspiring and motivating to see new faces with fresh ideas and energy work to further our mission. The new volunteers were added to our previously existing committees, which are volunteer subgroups that tackle projects in specific sectors of Trojan Shelter. For instance, our Finance Committee has taken the lead in organizing a fundraising table in front of the Trader Joe's in the USC Village, where shoppers can donate foods to Trojan Shelter that they bought while in the store. Keep an eye out for our tables which should be out soon! The Events Committee has been busy planning activities like a movie or game night to encourage bonding and camaraderie amongst volunteers while in this virtual space. The Research Committee is working on creating a slide deck to share our model to assist other students looking to begin organizations similar to Trojan Shelter. Our other committees have also begun projects helping in other various facets of Trojan Shelter. 

Our upcoming fundraisers include Instagram Bingo and a USC/Trojan Shelter graphic t-shirt fundraiser. Thanks to the generosity of the Trojan Shelter community in the last month, we have been able to supply the space with a Ring doorbell, curtains, portable locks, Xbox setup with games, lockers, and more! These donations make a direct impact on the lives of the shelter residents. There are still items that we'd like to have donated, which can be found here. Monetary donation can always be made to trojanshelter.org/donate. Our accomplishments wouldn’t be possible without you all by our side. Thank you for your continuous support; I look forward to sharing this journey with you. 

I wish you all the best and I will be in touch next month.

Sincerely,
Navyada Koshatwar
Director of Media
media.trojanshelter@gmail.com