Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!  Is there any better day of the week for Halloween than a Friday?  I think not.  And we here at the Center for Respite Care are making the most of it. We’ve painted pumpkins (pictures coming on Monday), compared costumes, decorated the common areas, enjoyed Buskens cookies (yum!) brought by a volunteer, and [...]

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Ask a Homeless Person: What Does Poverty Mean?

Happy Blog Action Day!  Despite writing about homeless people and the medical needs of this population all the time, I sometimes forget to consult the panel of experts (often referred to as our clients) that hang out on the Respite porch every afternoon.  Today, everyone was playing cards.  They let me interrupt to ask this question about poverty: [...]

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Blog Action Day – Poverty

This year’s Blog Action Day has a theme close to the Respite mission: poverty.  Obviously, the population we serve here is 100% poor and under the poverty line, frequently to the point of have $0 income and no benefits.  (Yes, we make every effort to rectify that.)  This will be my first time writing for [...]

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Sleeping in a Homeless Shelter

I was tag surfing today, checking out other blog articles on homelessness and found a great description of one woman’s first day at a homeless shelter.  It contains many of the details I’ve heard from Respite clients (about their stay at “traditional” emergency shelters, not a respite facility), along with the fear, worry, and unease [...]

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How to Make a Clothing Donation in Cincinnati

I fold and sort (thankfully) many clothing donations for the Center for Respite Care each month and I have some tips for potential clothing donors in Cincinnati or anywhere.  In fact, I received a wonderful clothing donation today from a local church group that refilled our dangerously-low t-shirt supply (that’s lesson one: homeless shelters usually [...]

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Are Homeless Numbers Up?

It seems that winter has struck early this year.  Not so much in terms of weather, but in the increased amount of homeless people needing shelter and medical care in these first few days of October.  I believe that most homeless shelters experience a similar, weather-related trend: in the summer, occupancy rates go down because [...]

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