Volunteers needed for Point-in-Time Count

Mar 21, 2018 | 6:00 AM

Approximately 50 volunteers are needed for the City’s Point in Time Count on April 11, to walk the streets and talk to people who are experiencing homelessness.

Forrest McGregor, Research and Evaluation Analyst with the City of Grande Prairie says they do a point in time count every two years to keep track of changing trends and make sure they are making progress to end homelessness locally.

The volunteers will go around with a survey where they’ll ask those experiencing homelessness questions about income, reasons why they are experiencing homelessness, and how long they’ve been in Grande Prairie.

The count is also used to ensure, if people are in a public system like corrections or hospitals, that the city can work with those systems so people who are coming into them homeless, aren’t leaving homeless as well.

McGregor says while out on the street, volunteers shouldn’t be concerned for their safety. They’ve been doing these counts for 12 years now and have never had any issues.

“Part of the training is devoted to making sure everyone is safe out on the count and we do have safety responses in place,” she said. “Every team has an experienced team leader on it who will know what to do in any situation.”

Volunteers will need to be okay with walking around outdoors for about three hours and using tablets or smart phones.

There were 127 homeless people counted in 2016 and half of those people were experiencing chronic homelessness – this was a 23 per cent decrease from the number of people counted in 2014.

by Sheena Roszell