It is the central belief of the Change for the Better program that generosity better serves panhandlers when directed towards the agencies that assist these individuals.
Real change – not spare change – is the best way to help out panhandlers.
Below is a list of some of the agencies providing real change in people’s lives. These partners in the Change for the Better program work to make a real difference in people’s lives, and all provide opportunities to help by volunteering or contributing.
Brother Francis Shelter
Brother Francis Shelter provides temporary, emergency shelter for men and women, an evening meal, and use of shower and laundry facilities, case management services, advocacy, job readiness, and referrals for employment, permanent housing, mental health issues, and treatment options for alcohol and substance abuse.
Brother Francis Shelter provided 77,955 nights of stay and served 3,192 homeless men and women during fiscal year 2010.
In one year, 61,872 meals were served. Providence Health & Services Alaska provides the evening meal and community members donate sandwiches for those missing meal times due to an appointment or work schedule conflict.
The clothing room provided assistance 11,311 times for those seeking basic clothing items. Clean clothes in good condition are needed to help us meet the demand.
For more information on Brother Francis Shelter or to make a donation of food, household furnishings or clothing, call the main line at 276-5590 or click here make a secure online donation.
Bean’s Café
The underlying premise of Bean’s Café is a deep belief in the inherent dignity of every person, a belief that people respond with kindness when treated kindly, with trust when trusted, and respectfully when respected. Their aim is not to set up a value system – determining what is right or wrong – or a way of life for persons, but to allow them to form their own. In this situation a person is not pressured into acting in a special way, and their eventual response is free, lasting, and more fully themselves.
Bean’s Café is a stand alone, non-sectarian, 501(c)(3) non-profit agency that is community-based and community-supported. Since 1979, Bean’s has maintained a center where the hungry and homeless are provided with hot nutritious meals, a warm and safe day shelter, information and referral assistance to health and human service programs.
Bean’s targets the poorest people in our community, the street people, the homeless, the chronically mentally ill, and the needy elderly. They also serve families in temporary crisis, the seasonally unemployed, and assist various local agencies in the feeding of children.
Bean’s Café exists to provide the most basic of human needs without discrimination or cost to anyone requesting assistance.
Individuals interested in helping Bean’s can volunteer, participate in special events, make financial contributions, and make food and material donations.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army has been in Alaska since 1898, dedicated to caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, providing warm clothing during the cold winter months, loving the unlovable and befriending the lonely. Your donations of time and resources help us continue doing the most good in helping the most people and making a difference in each life!
At The Salvation Army’s McKinnell House, the only facility in Anchorage providing emergency shelter for homeless two parent families or single parenting fathers, our goal is to equip families with the tools and support needed to transition back to independent housing. Services include shelter, nutritious meals, case management services, educational and employment support. Last year, 116 families were served, with 21,555 nights of shelter and 32,475 meals served. The average length of stay at McKinnell House is 53 days, with many families encounter housing challenges due to low availability of affordable housing.
The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Program provides housing, counseling, life skills education, spiritual development and work therapy for men struggling to overcome challenges and difficult circumstances resulting from the effects of substance abuse. The six month residential program depends primarily on sales of donated goods in local Salvation Army Thrift Stores to operate. Last year, 194 men were served, with 42% successfully completing the program and transitioning back into the community.
The Salvation Army Clitheroe Center offers professional, affordable residential and outpatient services for the chronically addicted. Services include the Specialized Treatment Unit for chronic public inebriates, Journeys, Crossroads, Intermediate Care Unit, Reflections (women only) and outpatient counseling. In 2011, 306 men and women participated in our residential programs, with 16,202 nights of shelter provided.
For more information on The Salvation Army or and current volunteer opportunities, please call 276-2515 or visit us on-line at www.salvationarmy.org/alaska to make a secure online donation.
Safe Harbor Inn
The mission of Safe Harbor Inn is to provide high quality transitional housing for Alaska’s homeless families and disabled individuals. Guests of Safe Harbor Inn are accepted only by the referral of case managers working with the homeless. Safe Harbor Inn operates 2 hotels and 70% of their former guests have moved on successfully to permanent housing. to learn more about Safe Harbor Inn or to donate to the program, visit http://safeharborinn.org
Homeward Bound
Homeward Bound provides the homeless chronic alcoholic with the tools needed to travel the journey home. At Homeward Bound, residents and staff work together to rebuild the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. Only with this foundation, can residents rejoin the world confident and empowered.
Homeward Bound seeks to replace hopelessness with confidence and self-empowerment. Homeward Bound is based on client choice and self-advocacy, as demonstrated by the program’s philosophy of resident self-directed and paced alcohol and financial management. There is only one measurement of success: meaningful, stable and personally satisfying reintegration into whatever community residents choose to rejoin.
Community Bound, begun in 1999, is a complimentary component of Homeward Bound, focusing on employment and housing. Community Bound participants receive an individualized employment training program, an individualized money management strategy and plan, facilitation to return to their community of choice, rental assistance (if needed) and up to 24 months of intensive case management follow-up services.
ReBound, another component of Homeward Bound, offers project-oriented services to a variety of medium and small businesses within the greater Anchorage area. These services may include cleaning up construction sites, minor cleaning and repair to apartment complexes and mobile home parks, landscaping and site preparations for retrofit operations. ReBound may also support task-oriented positions such as arts and crafts production, fire prevention site work, bark beetle kill removal and subsequent wood sales, as well as snow removal.
To learn more about the program, click here.
Covenant House
For over sixteen years Covenant House Alaska has been serving homeless and runaway youth in Alaska. In that time their services have expanded and some of the community needs have changed, but their mission remains the same: “To serve the suffering children of the streets.”
Covenant House Alaska’s sole purpose is to be of value to this community by remaining open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for kids in crisis. Kids come to us in need of shelter, food, clothing, or simply someone to listen to them, and we are committed to being here to help them and their families.
The kids that come to Covenant House Alaska have faced many difficulties in their young lives, but they have not given up hope. They show great courage and determination each day. Though the road is sometimes a long and difficult one, they continue on the path to becoming healthy, self-sufficient, and contributing members of our community. On behalf of the kids, both past and future, seeking help at Covenant House, thank you for supporting our mission and having faith in their future.
Approximately 90% of the funding for Covenant House comes from the generous donations of friends like you — partners in our efforts to make a difference in the lives of at risk youth.
Individuals may donate clothing, hygiene products, recreation items, safety items, and man others listed on their Agency Wish List. Individuals may also make financial donations online or by printing this form and mailing the donation to the address on the form.
For more information, please contact Alison Kear – Director of Development – at 339-4407 or via email.
Downtown Soup Kitchen
The Downtown Soup Kitchen serves up to 450 people daily, which consist of the homeless and working poor that includes men, women, youth and children. They also provide emergency clothing, showers and food bags. The Downtown Soup Kitchen is supported by over 125 volunteers and support from individual donations. Click here to learn about volunteer opportunities or to donate.
Anchorage Gospel Rescue Mission
The Anchorage Gospel Rescue Mission is a 501(c)3 entity that receives NO municipal, state or federal funds. The Rescue provides shelter and the “NewLife” Discipleship Training Program, a 24-month residential program designed to take men from the condition of homeless, and place them among the ranks of self supporting citizens.
