Visit to UMOM on Watkins

This Tuesday I served dinner at the UMOM center at Watkins.  This is a women's only shelter, however if the main family shelter has overflow, they allow families into this one.  I requested a tour of the center, however I was turned down as they are very focused on maintaining the privacy of the people who stay there, which is a good thing.  While it is usually all women, there were a few families their this time, one family having 6 children in it, the oldest being a young adult and the youngest still in a baby carrier.  Most of the families had two parents: only a few of them seemed to be families with a single parent.  There were far fewer people that actually came to dinner than I had witnessed in the past.  Was the shelter not full because of the nice whether?  Or is it a sign that people are steadily getting more permanent housing?

I spent most of my time today researching various volunteering opportunities in the Phoenix area, but did not find many places that worked directly with the homeless population.

Homeless Volunteering Places I researched and Called
Organization name	Comments	Action
Phoenix Rescue Mission		3/9 Filled online app out
svdp		3/9 Filled online app out
central arizona soc. Serv.	No individual Volunteer opp.
Hands on phoenix	Only group volunteer opp.
family promise of great. Phx	No individual Volunteer opp.
St. Mary	Cant observe homeless ppl
paz de christo		3/9 Filled online app out
Whole Life Foundation		Sent email about opp.
Valley of the sun united way	Don’t work directly w/ the homele
Stand up for kids		Sent email about opp. Email rejected
maggies place	nothing of interest
sunnyslope of refuge	homeless shelter for men	call doug tomorrow 6026780223
Lodestar Day Resource cent	Don’t work directly w/ the homeless
Salvation army	not sure aboutt volunteering
circle the city	only wants volunteers to sponsor fundraisers
Catholic Charities	Not focused on homelessness
az coalition to end homeless	not a lot of volunteering, good info tho	Call tomorrow 6023409393