Why Your Community Needs a Street Card

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-09-16 05:55:00 UTC
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With more people out of work and sliding into homelessness, our social service safety net is needed more than ever before. But a community safety net can quickly become a labyrinthine web of services, programs, and applications that are downright confusing for those already in crisis. What's a community to do?

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless came up with a great solution to this problem: a Street Card!

In short, the Street Card is a quick-reference document for anybody who has fallen on hard times and in need of assistance. Need to find the closest food pantry? A shelter that accepts two-parent families? Need help with an oil bill? The Street Card will contain the information you need, along with hours, locations, restrictions, contact info for all of a community's safety net services.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless publishes the Street Card each year, so the information is always accurate and useful -- and thus more likely to be an active document. Copies are made available online for free download, printing, and vast distribution by the general public (what a great item to give a panhandler!). What's more, the Coalition publishes a Veteran's Edition for veteran-specific services. Brilliant!

I like the Street Card because it's so incredible practical. It puts everyone on the same page... literally. It's cheap and easy for short-staffed and budget-strapped organizations.

Hey - nobody ever said that great ideas have to be complex.

Image from Tommy Ellis' public Flickr photo stream.

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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