STATE COLLEGE—Several members of Leadership Centre County have planned an event that is a compelling testimony to their sincere efforts to walk in the shoes of others for one day.
Leadership Centre County is a well-known community leadership development organization in the region. On April 8, one group from this year’s class will meet at the new permanent housing for the homeless at 318 S. Atherton St. in State College and prepare to spend the day outside, regardless of the weather. This is both a fundraiser and an awareness raising event.
“We were assigned to work with a nonprofit to help them raise awareness and money for their group,” said Bob Langton, realtor with Keller Williams. “We decided to work with Out of the Cold (OOTC). The nonprofit answers the call to serve those experiencing homelessness in our community.” The services include shelter, food and support during the transition to permanent housing.
“The executive director of OOTC, Kendra Getting, told us that some of the places homeless people might need to visit during the day,” said Langton. “Those sites include public bathrooms, buildings to get warm, such as the library, Panera for food and drink, PaDOT for driver’s licenses, laundromats to do laundry, Scott Conklin’s office to get a birth certificate and Friedman Park to sleep.”
Most of us can’t even imagine spending an entire day outside with little means to feed ourselves or get where we need to be. So, each of those taking part in this learning experience will take a small drawstring bag with a few bus tokens, a map and a list of possible places they might need to visit if they were homeless. Then, armed with little, they will face the day as a homeless person might.
Cathy Brown, executive director of Centre Peace, at 3047 Benner Pike, Bellefonte, is the group leader of those working with OOTC.
“The participants, who we expect to number between 15 and 20, will travel alone. But at least they will have suggestions of where to find bits of help during the day. Centre Peace deals with a prison population, and many ready to leave the system find it difficult to transition into society again,” she said.
“Without a job, it can be impossible to find a place to live. Many small businesses and restaurants closed during the pandemic, and lower-paying jobs went away. Therefore, more people face homelessness.”
According to The Department of Human Services, in 2020, there were 128 homeless in Centre County. Surprisingly, there were not so many evictions during the pandemic, but more people were requesting housing help.
In March, federal funding, amounting to $10.6 million, was given to the county ERAP program, which provides utility and rent assistance. So far, ERAP has helped approximately 1,000 Centre County households. It is the reality of being homeless that the Leadership Centre County group wishes to put out there in the faces of the community.
At the end of their day of homelessness, the group will come together, hold a debriefing, warm up with some soup and head home — a little more empathic and motivated to urge others to step up for the homeless.
Sponsors include First National Bank, Centre Peace, Aperture Consulting, and Bob Langton, Realtor/ Keller-Williams Realty.
