Community Council: Union Station Homeless Services
Union Station Homeless Services is part of a premier group of human services agencies in Los Angeles County that are leading the way to ending homelessness in our community. They are the San Gabriel Valley’s largest social service agency assisting homeless and very low-income adults and families. Since 1973, Union Station has helped rebuild the lives of thousands of people who were once homeless and without hope.
This year, UHSH is hosting a Dinner In The Park at Pasadena Central Park on Christmas Day! This incredible community event provides thousands of holiday meals and hope for all who attend, including homeless men, women, children, seniors, very low-income families, and those with no place to go during the holidays. The impact of this event in the community is huge!
Local outreach programs offer food, shelter to the homeless
During the winter season Pasadena gets cold at night, especially for those without a home. Several local outreach programs offer emergency shelters and other services for those looking for a place to sleep and eat.
The outreach program at Pasadena Covenant Church at 539 N. Lake Avenue offers an emergency shelter in collaboration with Friends in Deed (FID), an interfaith collaborative of different churches in the Pasadena area that’s dedicated to meeting the needs of the homeless and at-risk individuals.
“PasCov hosts the shelter in our gym,” said Vikki Randall, a pastor for the church. “Area churches share responsibilities to send volunteers and provide dinner.”
The Bad Weather shelter was activated on Nov. 27 and will be open during nights when the temperature is below 40 degrees or there is a 40 percent chance of rain. The emergency shelter will operate to until the end of February.
According to Randall, anyone who is looking for a place to stay for the night is welcome. There is no discrimination based on race, sexual orientation or disability.
“There’s a check in and they will have a cot,” said Kim Dorman, a member of Pasadena Covenant Church.
The emergency shelter opens at 8 p.m. and those that do go also receive dinner, which includes a meat dish, salad, bread, and desert. The shelter is staffed with professionals who have experience working with the homeless and mentally ill. A nurse is provided on-site to give flu shots and health evaluations.
The check out time is 6 a.m. to 6:30 am.
For those looking for more services, the Union Station Homeless Services offers a variety of outreach programs.
Since 1973, Union Station Homeless Services has served the poor and homeless population of Pasadena. Located on Raymond Avenue, the hospitality center offers services for at-risk individuals and families.
The Family Center offers shelter, meals and health services to parents and children. There is also an Adult Shelter for individuals looking for a nutritious meal and housing. Housing for both centers are on a first come, first served basis.
Union Station Homeless Services also offers permanent, supportive housing.
The center, along with Pasadena Covenant Church and 40-plus other social service agencies throughout the San Gabriel Valley, are working on ending homelessness in the area by 2016.
The Coordinated Entry System (CES) program finds housing for those that are chronically homeless with the goal of housing the most vulnerable first.
“This is an important and worthy goal, and one we are progressing towards steadily,” said Randall. “But it will take time—a lot of time—to house the 600 some homeless in Pasadena (at last census). So in the meantime we need the emergency shelter.”
Pasadena Covenant Church’s emergency shelter will be open on Christmas Eve for “Christmas at the Shelter” where they will provide a full holiday dinner.
The hotline for the Bad Weather Shelter is 1-888-915-8111.
The number for the Adult Center front desk is (626) 791-6610.
Alverno High School stopped by Union Station Homeless Services (USHS) in Pasadena on Tuesday, Nov. 24 to donate fruit, vegetable and cheese platters for the USHS Thanksgiving Feast. Additionally, Isabel Diaz, representing Alverno’s campus ministry, dropped off the more than 90 boxes of macaroni and cheese collected during the school’s Macaroni Knockdown event.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (FOX 11 / CNS) – Thanksgiving will be marked in Los Angeles County today by large gatherings on Skid Row and in Pasadena and Canoga Park to feed homeless and poor residents, and distance races that include charitable aspects.
Actors Dick Van Dyke and Ed Begley Jr. are expected to be among more than 300 volunteers serving Thanksgiving brunch at The Midnight Mission to thousands of homeless or nearly homeless men, women and children. Food bags and donated clothing will also be distributed.
“Of the many services The Midnight Mission provides to our unique community, one of the most important is the sense of family we offer to those who often feel lost and forgotten during the holidays and other days of
celebration,” said Georgia Berkovich, the mission’s director of public affairs.
“Now, more than ever, we need to work together to restore hope and dignity to those in need.”
The Fred Jordan Mission on Skid Row will hold its annual Thanksgiving banquet, serving more than one ton of turkey, topped by 80 gallons of gravy, to homeless people and working families who can’t afford to cook a Thanksgiving dinner, organizers said.
The meal will also include 585 pounds of green beans, 560 pounds of candied yams, 500 pounds of mashed potatoes, hundreds of pounds of traditional cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, 400 pumpkin pies and 220 gallons of fruit punch.
Guests will also receive a family food gift bag.
About 5,000 Thanksgiving dinners are expected to be served to adults and families experiencing homelessness and poverty, senior citizens and those who are alone or unable to afford a holiday meal at Union Station Homeless Services’ Dinner-in-the-Park at Central Park in Pasadena, continuing a tradition that began in 1972.
Volunteer registration for Thanksgiving has closed. Registration to volunteer for the organization’s Christmas Dinner-in-the-Park will begin Dec. 1 on its website, unionstationhs.org.
More than 2,000 people will be served turkey dinners at the 28th annual free Community Thanksgiving Day dinner for the area’s homeless and low-income families at Guadalupe Community Center in Canoga Park.
The public is invited to the 16th annual Gentle Thanksgiving at The Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita, which will feature vegetarian food, a bonfire, Native American drum circle and the opportunity to feed turkeys “that have
been rescued from Thanksgiving,” according to organizers.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2015 annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress released last week, the one-night estimate of homelessness found that the Los Angeles Continuum of Care had the nation’s second-largest amount of homeless people, 41,174, and second-
largest percentage of unsheltered homeless people, 70.3 percent, among major cities’ continuums of care.
The estimate found there were 6,781 more homeless people in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care in 2015 than 2014, a 20 percent increase. A continuum of care is the local planning body responsible for coordinating the full range of homelessness services in a geographic area. The Los Angeles Continuum of Care consists of all of Los Angeles County except for Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach.
Distance races have also become a growing Thanksgiving tradition.
The inaugural Drumstick Dash on the back lot of CBS Studios in Studio City will consist of a timed competitive 5K race, a timed community 5K run/walk and a Kids Fun Run.
Funds raised through registrations and sponsorships will be used toprovide hot meals, housing, health care and other basic needs to the homeless in the San Fernando Valley.
Organizers hope to make this an annual event.
The Turkey Trot Los Angeles 5K and 10K races will start and end at City Hall. The course will go through Bunker Hill and on Spring Street, passing The Broad contemporary art museum, Grand Park, Walt Disney Concert Hall and The Museum of Contemporary Art.
Some runners will be dressed as turkeys, Pilgrims and pies, according to organizers.
Participants are encouraged to donate time or money to The Midnight Mission.
The third annual 5-kilometer Tofurky Trot will be held outside the Rose Bowl, with prizes going to the top finishers in the men’s, women’s and kids divisions and for the best-costumed runner. Rescued turkeys from The Gentle Barn will be the guests of honor.
Profits from the race will be donated to The Gentle Barn and the National Museum of Animals and Society.
The sixth annual Burbank Community YMCA Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot will be run on a double-loop course in downtown Burbank, with 5- and 10-kilometer races, a 5-kilometer “fun run/walk” and a “kiddie run” for
children 9 years old and younger.
Proceeds from the race will benefit the Burbank Community YMCA’s membership assistance program, which makes its facilities and programs available to the children and families in the city, regardless of ability to
pay.
The first official Thanksgiving was held in the Virginia Colony on Dec. 4, 1619. The traditional meal stems from one held in 1621 by the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The Continental Congress issued the nation’s first official Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1777.
President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789, his first year in office.
Washington declared a national Thanksgiving holiday for the newly ratified Constitution, so people may thank God for “affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness” and for having “been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, particularly the national one now lately instituted.”
The first four presidents combined to issue six Thanksgiving proclamations. However, the tradition ended in 1815. Abraham Lincoln reinstituted it in 1863 in an attempt to heal the divisions caused by the Civil War. Every president since has made an official Thanksgiving proclamation.
In his Thanksgiving proclamation, President Barack Obama asked the nation to “express our gratitude by welcoming others to our celebrations and recognize those who volunteer today to ensure a dinner is possible for those who might have gone without.”
Mayor Terry Tornek, Ralphs Grocery Company and Food 4 Less will host the 13th Annual “Operation Gobble Gobble” beginning at 7:30 a.m., Saturday, November 21, 2015 in front of Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave. to distribute 450 Thanksgiving turkeys with all the trimmings to local human service agencies.
In about 90 minutes, a whirlwind of charitable goodwill envelopes the area in front of City Hall as volunteers dash about to distributed the donated food to a long line of pre-determined charitable organizations that receive the items for re-distribution to their clients prior to Thanksgiving.
Including this year, more than over 4,500 Thanksgiving feasts have been provide to the Pasadena community by Ralphs and Food 4 Less, the equivalent of about 45,000 meals, as part of Operation Gobble Gobble.
“Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to give thanks for the many blessings we’ve received throughout the year,” Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek said. “I’m pleased to continue the tradition of Operation Gobble Gobble with Ralphs Grocery Company and Food 4 Less, who make it possible to extend a Thanksgiving blessing to many of Pasadena’s most needy families.”
Ralphs and Food 4 Less are generously donating the Thanksgiving turkeys, along with stuffing, canned vegetables, potatoes and pumpkin pie. In addition, volunteer representatives from the companies will team up with Pasadena firefighters and other community members to help distribute the food.
Representatives of community organizations including, among others, Pasadena Unified School District Healthy Start, Union Station Homeless Services, Armenian Relief Society, Ronald McDonald House, Mother’s Club, Friends in Deed Pantry, Lutheran Social Services, Walter Hoving Home, Elizabeth House, and Door of Hope will receive the food for distribution to the community.
“Ralphs and Food 4 Less are pleased to be active citizens in Pasadena, and we are proud to join with Mayor Tornek to help make this Thanksgiving special for many people who otherwise might not have the resources to enjoy a turkey dinner with all the fixings,” said Kendra Doyle, Public Relations Vice President.
For more information about “Operation Gobble Gobble’” contact Rhonda Stone at (626) 744-7147.
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