I Have Seen All That NEOCH Can Do For Homeless People
Commentary by Ramona Turnbull
I first met Brian Davis at the Bishop Cosgrove Center when he helped with my grievance. I participated in turning in a grievance for some of the problems I was having at the Women’s Shelter. He took my grievance, along with some of the other women that wanted to file a grievance, and returned a response to me the following week. I thanked him and then didn’t see him for a while. I wasn’t sure who he was or why he took on the responsibility of taking our grievances, but I was thankful.
The next time I saw Brian, I was being harassed by the police and was still residing at the women’s shelter. I had to do community service and when I reported for community service I was asked what type of services I could do and the worker there had a list. When he asked me about the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, I asked what type of organization that is and when he told me I agreed to do the service there. He called NEOCH and I was permitted to do the hours there. That is when I found out that Brian Davis is the Executive Director at NEOCH.
He and the staff were very friendly and I immediately relaxed. I learned a lot during the time I did community service there. This experience helped me to remember I have skills and also taught me how to use them more effectively. Once I completed various community service hours, which I informed Mr. Davis was due to two officers harassing and following me around, I received a nice going away present with much needed hygiene products and a rain coat. I informed him and the staff there that I will miss being around and he suggested that I become a volunteer. I completed the necessary paperwork, read the volunteer training manual, and became a volunteer. He also helped me to file a complaint against the two officers that were harassing me. I later found out that my complaint was one of many against these two officers.
Once I became a volunteer, I was introduced to a lot of projects that were exciting to me. I felt blessed to be a part of it. Although I have worked with the homeless population prior to my becoming homeless myself, I found that I didn’t know things I thought I knew. This was a blessing in itself. I felt empowered and each assignment helped me to heal and better understand homelessness. I was taught how to update election information, to make sure the information in the system was correct and updated so the information could be used in a lawsuit. The lawsuit was to protect the homeless population’s right to vote and have it counted. This information also helped to find out how many homeless people were registered to vote and to make sure anyone who wasn’t registered was able to do so.
I also updated information about the different street papers in different areas of the country and Canada. I was able to be interviewed to tell my story about how I came to be homeless, wrote and proofread stories for the street paper, and wrote stories for the website.
After volunteering for a number of months, Brian came to me and informed me that he would be willing to take on one more employee to work in the office. I was blown away by this and immediately asked what I needed to do. I met the requirements and was hired as a Public Outreach Worker.
I was very excited about being employed through Mature Services and being able to continue writing articles for the blog, editing material before it is put into the computer, note taking for the Homeless Congress and the Resident Council. I was even permitted to go to Pittsburgh for the People’s Convention to march in a demonstration, and helped to orchestrate the March to End Poverty on the day of the Republican National Convention. Other services I had the unique opportunity to participate in were the Homeless Stand Down, the Homeless Candlelight Vigil, and advocacy for the women residing at the Norma Herr Women’s Shelter. I have learned a lot through Brian allowing me to work as a Public Outreach worker and I am very grateful for having the opportunity to work under him to provide a voice for the homeless population and bring awareness to homelessness. Brian Davis will be missed by the homeless population and the people that had the unique opportunity to work with to make a difference.