Volunteers are the hands of Blanchet House’s mission to bring direct relief to people in need. Blanchet House is unique in that it offers a hands-on way to learn about the complexities of homelessness while serving others. In my role, I’m fortunate to meet so many people who want to help our neighbors in need and are willing to get involved. These caring individuals work without the expectation of compensation, looking to heal society’s wounds.

Many people are motivated to volunteer with us on a national holiday like Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. MLK Day celebrates a man who dedicated his life to service and fighting injustice. It’s also the only federally designated Day of Service holiday meant to encourage Americans to take action to improve their communities. It’s a day that sparks more people than usual to sign up for a volunteer shift during Blanchet House’s meal services. We are always grateful to host volunteers who want to honor King’s legacy by serving in our cafe. But this year, I think we can all go a step further and rethink this Day of Service holiday.

Ralph Abernathy, James Forman, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Douglas, and John Lewis. King led the five-day, 54-mile march for voting rights in 1965, from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery. Photo by Steve Shapiro.

Volunteers Are Needed Everyday

Instead of picking a popular day to volunteer when a swell of helping hands vie for a few shifts, we could start using MLK Jr. Day as a time to reflect on our service. This can be the day that we make a commitment to integrating more service into our lives all year and choose a less popular day to serve. A day when the need for hands is much higher.

This year, MLK Day coincides with a winter storm across the Pacific Northwest that will create additional challenges for the vulnerable citizens of Portland. We are grateful to all who will brave the elements to serve in our cafe when other services shutter. But winter emergencies have struck many times over the years, and Blanchet House has been a consistent beacon no matter when the snow and ice hit. When times are most dire, our services are needed most.

If we seek change or hope to alleviate suffering, we must understand that our help is needed throughout the year. Our community’s challenges are just as pressing on non-holidays. The needs of the people we serve on MLK Day are no different than those on Friday.

Your first day of service is the first step of a life-long journey. I’ve seen many people begin their journey here at Blanchet House, and they inspire me to continue the work that I do. We are honored to serve with you in rain or shine, snow or smoke, pandemics, and beyond. We invite you to join us on your service journey and to make us a part of your plans to serve this year.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of nonprofits and the heart of homeless services in this city. There are many ways to get involved at Blanchet House like making care kits or sack lunches from home, hosting a clothing drive, signing up to volunteer, or donating money. Whatever way you choose to serve will benefit your neighbors in need.

—By Jon Seibert, Director of Programs

The post Volunteer Days of Service Needed Beyond MLK Day appeared first on Blanchet House.

Blanchet House partners with Portland-based company Pioneer Wiping Cloth to recycle clothes we cannot give out into cleaning cloths.

By Etta Moen

As an organization offering to clothe people experiencing homelessness, Blanchet accepts clothing from caring donors. It’s a big job to take in and sort clothing. Volunteers are needed to sort the clothing, share it with peer aid groups, and distribute it to people without access to laundry.

Consequently, it is a personal challenge of mine to build a better system. A system that allows staff to quickly find items requested by our houseless guests waiting in the rain and cold outside.

FACT: 62,810 pounds of clothes were donated to Blanchet House in 2021

Staff like me and volunteers must keep up with mounting piles that often contain unwearable clothing. Clothes that are torn, dirty, or inappropriate for use must be disposed of somehow. Blanchet House is unable to launder or mend clothes. Furthermore, storage is limited so we must keep seasonally appropriate clothes on hand and remove out-of-season clothing. For example, shorts, tank tops, flip flops, or swimsuits will not help our houseless guests from winter weather.

To keep unusable clothes out of landfills I sought a partner that can recycle clothes in an environmentally friendly way.

Bales of mixed rags at Pioneer Wiping Cloth. Pioneer recycles clothes into cleaning cloths for industrial use. (Courtesy Pioneer Wiping Cloth)

Recycle Clothes into Cleaning Cloths

I discovered Pioneer Wiping Cloth, a local business that’s been operating since 1931. They turn clothes that we send them into rags for industrial cleaning. Pioneer cuts, cleans, bales, then sell the cloth by the pound to businesses that need an economical alternative for maintenance.

“It’s amazing. The fact that clothing is being made into something useful gives us the opportunity to take in more clothing and the ability to move it along in a sustainable way,” says Jennifer Ransdell, Blanchet House’s Services Coordinator.

Sustainability in All Areas

Clothing is not the only way Blanchet practices sustainable methods. Similar to how we aspire to eliminate clothing waste, we also work to maintain a nearly zero food waste kitchen and operate from an energy-efficient LEED Certified Platinum building.

Blanchet House does its absolute best to re-donate, recycle, and repurpose food and clothing so nothing is wasted. However, we need donors to understand that while we have a more sustainable way to discard items the process is labor-intensive.

Jackets shared with Hygiene 4 All await selection by guests experiencing homelessness. Hygiene 4 All offers showers at their location under the Morrison Bridge. (Courtesy Hygiene 4 All)

Frequently, I am overwhelmed by the generosity of donors. And I don’t want to discourage people from giving to us. We ask that donors think about the items they intend to donate.

• Will they be useful to someone who is living outside?
• Will the items be helpful to someone starting a job that requires them to be on their feet all day?
• Are they seasonally appropriate?

 

In addition, having the ability to recycle clothes makes the process of sorting clothing much easier. Especially with limited space. We no longer have to scramble to find a place to put things. This recycling program adds to the legacy of sustainability that Blanchet House has created.

“We honor the labor and resources it takes from the Earth to create things. We are trying our hardest to use everything that we can,” says Ransdell. “No one wants to throw things away because you don’t need them anymore. You try and find a use for them.”

A donor drops off bags of used clothing at Blanchet House. (Photo by Jon Seibert)

How to Donate Clothes

You can donate new or gently used clothing Monday to Saturday, from 8-10:30 a.m. or 1:30-4 p.m. See a list of most needed items by season. Questions? Email us at info@blanchethouse.org.

Moen is an intern at Blanchet House and a graduate of Lewis and Clark College.

The post Partner Will Recycle Clothes into Cleaning Cloths appeared first on Blanchet House.

I was recently asked, “What is the most important thing Oregon’s next governor should know about houselessness and housing insecurity?”

My answer? Trauma.

Some will disagree with me, saying that the critical issue is the lack of affordable housing.

And they are right.

Others may say the lack of livable wages, coupled with the crushing expense of childcare and health care, are the reasons for homelessness.

They are correct, too.

Other correct answers include over-incarceration, lack of appropriate mental health and addiction treatment, the treatment of addiction as a crime rather than a public health concern, and an inadequate social safety net for underserved communities, including seniors and people with disabilities. These issues all contribute to our homelessness crisis.

Also, let us not gloss over the debilitating effects of generational and systemic poverty, discrimination, and racism. These social ills are significant causes of homelessness too. But I believe recognizing the role trauma plays in understanding homelessness is the most important issue for the next governor.

At Blanchet House, an Oregon nonprofit serving people experiencing homelessness, food and housing insecurity, and addiction, the lingering and deepening effects of trauma are foremost in our minds. For many people, trauma exists at the heart of their need for aid and social services.

How does trauma lead to housing insecurity?

Trauma, particularly experienced as a child, can lead to substance abuse and mental illness. People use substances to dull the pain of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress. Addiction can exacerbate mental illness, sometimes even inducing psychosis.

At Blanchet House, we hear heartbreaking stories daily from our guests – stories of generational trauma, child abuse, neglect, and domestic violence. A resident of our transitional shelter program told me his story of coming out as gay to his family. He experienced severe physical abuse as a result and ran away. This led him to drug use and then to crime as a way of supporting his drug use. He became houseless.

Sadly, his story is shared by many in the homeless community.

Homelessness itself is traumatic. A person experiencing homelessness often lives in a perpetual fight or flight mode, which has profound effects on their brain chemistry and physical health. And the longer someone experiences homelessness the more difficult it is to find the right long-term supportive housing for them.

In many ways, the community we serve is not a homeless community but a traumatized community. These individuals live unsheltered without regular access to proper hygiene, sanitation, and treatment. This reflects how our society cares or does not care for our traumatized neighbors.

It is imperative that we seek ways to recognize and address trauma. Trauma compounds like interest. Add to this mix the impacts of a pandemic, which have resulted in houseless citizens being shut out of and turned away from resources that previously provided relief. It is no wonder that we see great levels of despair, hopelessness, and even hostility among the people Blanchet House serves today.

Focusing on trauma compels us to see homelessness not as a cause of problems – tents, trash, vagrancy, despair, and hostility – but as the result of something more profound, something more human.

Dr. Gabor Maté, a leading expert on addiction, trauma, and houselessness says, “We have to see each other for what’s happened to us and not what’s wrong with us.”

This way of thinking could revolutionize how our community approaches housing insecurity and those who experience it. It certainly is how Blanchet House, and our colleagues approach our work. We recognize the humanity within the person seeking our aid and help.

I encourage Oregon’s next governor to consider the pain people experiencing homelessness are in when working to address housing insecurity. This level of inquiry will inspire policy that addresses root causes of homelessness lead to better outcomes.

Nonprofits like Blanchet House need backing for projects like a collaborative peer support program. Through this project, shared teams of professionals with lived experience will provide crisis de-escalation and referral services to people experiencing homelessness. We need a commitment to funding services like this and Portland Street Response so that the police are not responsible for resolving mental health crises.

Additionally, more funding for longer-term transitional shelters is needed. Blanchet House and Blanchet Farm offer a place to gain sobriety, rebuild physical and mental health, and find work and affordable housing.

These kinds of programs are an essential bridge from trauma to permanent housing for many people experiencing homelessness in our community.

Scott Kerman is Executive Director of BLANCHET HOUSE OF HOSPITALITY, which provides meals to persons experiencing housing insecurity in Old Town, Portland, as well as long-term transitional shelter in Old Town and at Blanchet Farm in Carlton, Oregon.

This article originally appeared in The Oregon Way.

The Oregon Way blog features opinion pieces from contributors across the state and the political spectrum with the intent of identifying common values among Oregonians.

The post We need to understand role trauma plays in homelessness appeared first on Blanchet House.

The post After 70 Years a New Look for Blanchet House appeared first on Blanchet House.

The post An Inside Look at Volunteering with Blanchet House appeared first on Blanchet House.