FRANCISCAN WORKERS OF JUNIPERO SERRA
PO Box 2027, Salinas, CA 939022027 www.dorothysplace.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: With love, respect and compassion, the Franciscan Workers of Junipero Serra provide essential services and transitional support to people experiencing the injustice of homelessness and extreme poverty.

Franciscan Workers offers five core programs in service to those suffering through homelessness: 1) Dorothy's Drop-In Center, 2) Dorothy's Kitchen, 3) Women Alive Emergency Shelter, 4) House of Peace Transitional Residence and 5) the Chinatown (an area in Salinas, CA) Health Services Center (CHSC). The first four core programs are housed at Dorothy's Place (the facility) at 30 Soledad St and the CHSC health services stands are located at 115 E. Lake Street in Salinas, California. 1. Dorothy's Drop-In CenterThe mission of Franciscan Workers and the goal of Dorothy's Place programs is to provide basic needs, essential services and transitional support that move people that are chronically homeless into housing. We serve clients that have multiple barriers and disabilities. Commonly, 90% of our clients require mental health or addiction intervention. In 2018, we continue to focus on basic needs, safe shelter, transitional programming and data gathering and research that not only creates an evidence base that informs our services, but also stimulates community discussion on the greatest challenge of assisting chronically homeless people into housing, that of meeting unaddressed health needs. The Drop-In Center is a day shelter designed to be a safe gathering place where homeless, marginalized, and others who are our clients can meet basic hygiene needs (shower & laundry), be treated at our weekly health clinic, and access other services that are geared towards helping them live with greater health and dignity (mail, phone, clothing, activities and volunteering). In 2018, we served 1,208 individuals, mostly adults, with basic needs, and our social workers assisted 92 clients with housing navigation. This year, we developed a database designed specifically to record client progress into housing as data to develop an evidence base. Our goal in data collection, analysis, and reporting is to discover root problems of chronic homelessness in our local area and bring attention to practical ways to help the chronically homeless off the street. Our research efforts indicated that trauma-informed care in healthcare organizations yielded positive results, but there was insufficient research found on trauma-informed care in the setting of social service outreach to the homeless. Franciscan Workers has been utilizing trauma-informed care for years, building relationships with our guests and clients, discovering their emotional needs, and what was keeping them from succeeding in housing. We expanded our case management capability and our research efforts by employing specific expertise that will allow us to create more effective interaction with clients, collect their data, record their progress, analyze the data and through reporting to community leaders, use the analysis to inform solutions and positive change. 2. Dorothy's KitchenWe serve smiles, gentle conversation, hugs, and an atmosphere of family. Dorothy's Kitchen open at 8:30 every morning for a hot breakfast for our guests, serving between 90 and 150 people each day. The Kitchen also serves a hot lunch every day of the week a 1:00. Upwards of 400 free meals are served daily. On special occasions, such as Thanksgiving, we exceed that number and will serve nearly 1,000 meals. Emergency food boxes are distributed between 10:00-11:00 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. There is no charge, obligation (other than good behavior), or discrimination. We don't ask names or request IDs. Those who come are our guests, and are treated with hospitality, like family.3. Women Alive The primary objective of the Women Alive program is to create a safe, non-judgmental, nurturing space for women beginning with an emergency overnight shelter. Currently Women Alive is the only no-questions-asked emergency walk-in shelter for street women in Monterey County. Our number of clients continues to reduce since the opening of an area warming shelter. Our shelter staff assisted women with housing, drug treatment referrals, mental health referrals, IDs, critical transportation, employment counseling and access to health services. Although this program operates at night, client interviews and basic data gathering and recording are accomplished by evening staff. 4. House of Peace Transitional Residence This program promotes and provides safety, stability, and wellbeing for 24 adults who have experienced chronic homelessness. This program provides needed structure, access to health care, assistance with housing vouchers and supportive services, including emotional support, linkage to community resources, educational direction, financial and literacy programs, as well as assistance with benefit applications, employment readiness, and job searches. House of Peace is where we see the greatest lifestyle improvements in our clients and is the program where our data analysis and research is most effectively applied. 5. Chinatown Health Services CenterThe Chinatown Health Services Center in Salinas, CA was created to meet the medical and mental health needs of chronically homeless people encamped throughout Chinatown by bringing services to their neighborhood. Opened in October of 2016, it served more than 300 clients in 2018, with on-site medical treatment, out-patient mental health treatment, County social services, harm-reducing syringe exchange and 24/7 safe restrooms and showers (82,810 restroom visits, 31,058 showers). St. Clare's Corner is an extension pantry of the Food Bank for Monterey County, offering supplemental food for more than 260 farm worker families during the months of October through May, as well as clothing and household items. Dorothy's Place also hosts a small walk-in health clinic for two hours on Wednesdays. It is staffed entirely by volunteers (licensed doctors, nurses, medical resident students and nursing students). Fundraising maintains an income for the clinic that supports prescription assistance for our clients. All services are offered at no cost to the client.

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