Stop The Bleeding Outreach

The 2010 Stop The Bleeding Outreach

Winter is here, and it has officially staked it's claim - it's gotten mighty COLD around here, as it always does this time of year, sending us out to the streets of Boston to try to keep the homeless something that resembles warm.

In Winters past we've made a point of going out on the absolutely coldest nights - the problem with that strategy is that the city also typically does a sweep of the homeless on those same nights, making it difficult to find any homeless.

The problem with that is that they end up back out on the streets again shortly thereafter, so we're basically missing them and therefore not getting the hats and gloves out to them.

So, in the interest of getting the job done, this year we will be going out a day or two in advance of the brutally cold days. This way, unfortunately, we will see many more homeless people out on the streets, but we will be able to get them what they need. We will also be targeting different areas of town, whether it be by car or the hard way on foot and via the T. And you know what? We never get used to seeing these people out on the streets. It's still just as depressing as when we started this.

I guess that's good? Whatever.

We will not stop until we don't need to do this anymore. And that IS possible. It is.

That said, we could really use some help from someone with a vehicle - a one-time couple hour venture to help those in need - if anybody's interested please contact us via this website. We will keep you posted as always with Outreach updates on this page throughout the Winter.

Peace and be warm - STB

Outreach Update #1 1-29-10

Greetings from the Stop The Bleeding Outreach as we give you the first update of 2010.

So we went out to downtown Boston last night. Typically in the past we've intentionally gone out on the absolutely coldest nights of the Winter in an attempt to get the Winter clothing out to the homeless when they need it the most, but after a few outings last Winter where, due to the city also targeting the coldest nights to do their sweeps, we found virtually no one out there, we decided to change our strategy a little. Unfortunately for many homeless people, being brought in for the night means just that, and they are still out there the rest of the day and nights when it's not as brutally cold, but still well below freezing. And so we decided to go out the night before it gets really bad, so in theory they have protection from the cold before it's upon them. Funny thing about that - what was supposed to be a 20 minute snow squall during the day ended up being an intermittent on and off all day snow storm. Not a lot of snow , really, but this "squall" reached it's peak just as we were going out. That just says to me we picked exactly the right time to go out.

We hit our usual area of Downtown Crossing + Boston Common, and were immediately hit with a cold wind that cut right through us, layers and all. We only found 4 people, 1 of whom wanted nothing to do with us. The other 3 had no coats. No coats. In January - in New England - outside - all night. Unbelievable. Fortunately, the Stop The Bleeding Winter clothing drive had recently received some Winter coats, which we had with us.

Damn right.

That's how this is supposd to work.

Kind of depressing, as always, that we can't do more to help these people, but we'll do what we can. Also, we know there are more than 4 people sleeping on the streets out there. Our lack of a vehicle limits our ability to hit more than one area at a time, so next time out we will be focusing on another part of town to be determined, and possibly a different time of day as well.

We'll keep you posted.

Peace from STB

The 2009 Stop The Bleeding Outreach

Global Warming, eh?

Hmmm...

Admittedly, I don't know much about the theory or how legit it is or isn't, but here's what I do know - right here, right now it is NASTY COLD, like it always is this time of year. I love Winter, but it is depressing to see that not much has changed in terms of people sleeping out in the cold in our great city. People with no hat, no gloves, nothing. In some cases no coat, and once in a great while no shirt. Unfathomable, really, but it's going on, which is why we will specifically be going out on the coldest nights again this Winter to pass out what we can. As always with everything we do, we will be keeping you posted with updates on how it's going.

Warmest wishes,

STB

Outreach Update #2 2-6-09

Last night boasted a temp of about 3 degrees and a wind chill of well below zero, so we went out. Good News - we found NO ONE. I'm not sure what this means - maybe the city is doing a better job with it's "sweeps"(this is what they call it when they go out and try to get the homeless inside for the night when it's really cold out). When we first started going out to do this a couple years ago, we would find anywhere between 12-20 people out there, but recently it's been more like 6-10. We're not complaining, believe me. The less people out there the better.

I know there are undoubtedly some homeless people out there that we didn't get to, but we're doing what we can. I just hope that the city's efforts extend beyond just a quick sweep here and there. I hope. And we do currently have a Governor who seems to be determined to do something about homelessness. Time will tell I suppose, but the smaller numbers of people out in the dangerous cold is very encouraging.

Kinda strange I guess to say we're glad we went out for nothing last night, but we are. It makes me think about what it could be like someday in this country, and in every country. Imagine walking down a city street and NOT seeing homeless people out there. It's REALLY hard to imagine it, but can you imagine? Yeah.

'Til next time.

Peace

Outreach Update #1 1-21-09

Hey everybody - We kicked off our 2009 Outreach this past Thursday night. We would have liked to have gone out sooner, but due to a really tight budget we haven't been able to buy the appropriate items. We were also having trouble finding some inexpensive winter hats. Fortunately, we scored big at 2 Family Dollar stores in Everett, where we found 44 $1 Winter hats. BINGO. And so we rolled on out...

MAN!!!!! REALLY cold.

That nasty cut-right-through-you cold, accompanied by a strong wind. We found about a half dozen homeless people out there. Good because there have been times when we find way more than that. Bad because, well, we found six people out there. Six too many. We are also very limited with how much territory we can cover because we don't have transpo. We take the T into town, but it would take too much time and money to take the T back and forth all over town. I know there are other areas of town where the homeless hunker down - outside. We need to find a way to get to them as well. Every time we go out I think of the people we didn't get to. We typically cover the Downtown Crossing/Boston Common/Financial District area, so I think we do okay with limited resources, but hey - we'll get there. We'll find a way to expand this Outreach. I've been saying that for the past 2 winters. It's just hard to not be acutely aware of the fact that people are freezing NOW. Hmmm.

So we're watching the weather forecasts and looking for the next really bad cold night/nights and we'll go out again when it's time.

Until then...

Outreach Update # .5 1-15-09

A low temperature of 3 degrees tonight and a wind chill approaching 10 below tonight and tommorrow night. Mm-hmm. We're going out tonight.

The 2008 Stop The Bleeding Outreach

Here we are again - another year, and, unfortunately, another hard Winter for the homeless to try to survive through, but that's why Stop The Bleeding started the Outreach program - it is our modest goal to help the homeless survive until we can get them more long term help. We will once again be hitting the streets of Boston to pass out hats, gloves, socks, and other Winter clothing items directly to the homeless who find themselves literally sleeping out in the street. This is something Stop The Bleeding will continue to do, regardless of our own level of success, for as long as there is even one person out there in these potentially fatal weather conditions. No one should have to risk what the homeless do every night that they lay down to sleep - on a bench, in a doorway, or an ATM booth, or an alleyway, or a dumpster. If anyone is interested in joining us, there's not a lot required - just an hour or two of your time, and just a basic sense of human compassion for people who need help. That's all. Let's help keep Boston's homeless alive and kicking this Winter.

Thank You

Neil Christian Schramm

Founder

Stop The Bleeding

Outreach Update #3 3-5-08

Our third trip out this season we decided to switch it up a little from our usual method in an attempt to reach more of the homeless. We had met up with a group from the Park Street Church who had invited us to join them the previous week. As we approached their spot I wasn't sure if they'd remember us but it was quite the opposite - we were instantly descended upon by a couple people from the group who graciously welcomed us. I'm glad we made enough of an impression for them to remember us and it was nice to see that there are other people who care about the homeless and who are out there doing something to help them - because sometimes I wonder - but seeing is believing. We're not particularly religious, but that didn't matter - to them or to us - as we share a common goal. As we joined their circle afterwards I couldn't help but feel the good energy these people had going - while the source of our motivation may be different from theirs, it doesn't matter.

Imagine all the people...

As we were walking back to the T to go home, when we reached the State Street stop on Washington Street, we unfortunately came across THE SAME ASIAN GUY WE CAME ACROSS THE PREVIOUS WEEK - the one lying against the side of the 7-11 - still freezing, still not able to speak English, and still just basically there. And I've been seeing this guy there in the morning just about every day since we went out the previous week because I drive by there almost every day at work - him and all the other ones I see in the exact same spots at the exact same time all the time pretty much every day. And I'll tell you what - somebody tell me again that there isn't any room for another help center for the homeless in this town, and I'll tell that person to take a walk with us some night.

We're getting really frustrated by this, as you can probably tell by the tone of these updates. All I can say is between no venues for shows, attitudes and resistance that really I've been getting since we started STB in 2005, and these poor people just stuck out there I'm not feeling good about the city of Boston. And I love this city.

It doesn't have to be like this if we don't let it.

We are targeting 2009 to open the Stop The Bleeding help center for the homeless. Anyone that wants to help please let us know.

E-mail: karmajunction@yahoo.com

Thank You

Peace

Chris

Outreach Update #2.5

P.S. On a more positive note, we met a great group from the Park Street Church who come out on Thursday nights to give out hot beverages to the homeless - and who, when we asked if they'd mind if we set up shop with them so we could access more of the homeless, graciously invited us to join them. This is the way it should be - people working together instead of competing - something we've unfortunately witnessed numerous times in the social services field. So Thank You to them and we'll be happy to see you on Thursday.

Outreach Update #2 2-26-08

So it's been a while since we went out - for two reasons - the first being that it hasn't been too too bad temperature wise - not as bad as it can be anyways - and the second reason being that we have limited time and transpo options when we go out, but we did go out last Thursday, as the almost Spring-like temperatures we got teased with the previous couple days gave way to the normal Winter cold. You know we really have mixed feelings when we go out - for example, the second we walked off the top step of the exit of the State Street T stop, we saw a homeless guy laying against the side wall of the 7-11 - and immediately after that across the street in an ATM booth we saw another guy, and immediately after that we came across another gentleman in the street, and then another one - all in one block. I guess that's good? I think it's horrible. It's good that we could help a little, but it's frustrating because we can't help more. Yet. YET.

It wasn't too bad in terms of really low cold temps, but still. Every time we go out we see this. Every time. Seriously, I wish we didn't see so damn many people out there. Because that would mean that something was being done to take care of them. And so it goes...

Speaking of that, for those of you who don't know, we are piecing together our plan to open our own help center for the homeless, in an attempt to do what I just mentioned. By that I don't mean accepting millions of dollars and then when people are still homeless shrugging my shoulders and saying "I don't know" or even worse "Woe is me". Just saying. I know that's vague - I digress. This will take a while, but as long as there is one homeless person out there, there IS a need for such a place. People don't have to help, and people don't have to agree, but those who do we welcome your help. Why am I talking about this in the Outreach update? Because maybe someday we won't need outreaches. Imagine that. And because I tend to say the same old thing in these updates so I thought I'd mix it up a little. And because I'm irritated.

To the homeless: Hang In There - Help Is Coming

NCS

Outreach Update #1 1-6-08

I really need to pay more attention to the weather reports, because if I had, I would have realized sooner that it wasn't going to just be cold with lows around 5-10 degrees, but that the wind chill was going to bring a dangerous 15 below effect with it, and we would have gone out sooner. We did go out this past Thursday however, and how do I say it? BRUTAL. Absolutely brutally cold temperatures and wind - so much so that we were NUMB and had to stop after just one hour. This drives me NUTS, because I want to stay out longer so we can reach more people, but I think if we had we would have put ourselves right out of commission - no lie.

And so it begs the question - How the hell do the homeless survive in those conditions? We were experiencing literal numbness after 1 hour and we were layered. We did manage to find about 10 homeless folks out there in the Boston Common/Downtown Crossing/Financial District area, so I'm glad we went out - I'm glad we were able to help in a small way, but it's frustrating at the same time, knowing that these people are out there even as I write this several days after the fact.

Fortunately, also as I write this it is now above freezing, but we all know that won't last. And so here I come with my push - Anyone who would like to do this with us please let us know - we will be going out again the next time the brutal cold comes back - rest assured, we won't let you get frostbite - we stop when we have to and we pack it in if necessary, but it's also necessary to keep doing this, as we have never gone out yet on one of these trips where we didn't find someone out there - they're always out there, and they usually don't have any hats or gloves or anything. I would love to get a few more people involved in this with us - it would be awesome to have a couple teams fanning out and covering twice the territory we normally do in one outing. If you are interested, contact us at karmajunction@yahoo.com or by phone at 781-480-4152.

Thanks

Peace

Chris

2007 marks the beginning of the Stop The Bleeding Outreach - this is something I've wanted to do for a long time - actually going out into the streets of Boston to connect with the homeless - to start we're passing out hats, gloves, scarves, headbands, socks, coats - things like that - directly to the homeless who are out there right now in the streets. Eventually I'd like to expand the Outreach to include talking to these people and getting their story - find out why they're out there, what problems they may have(mental, physical, addiction)that got them there or are keeping them there and try to literally get them off the street by taking them to the appropriate shelter or program that they need. Maybe even track their progress to make sure they don't fall back into homelessness.

          I think a key element to the success of this particular Outreach will be the way we treat them - like human beings - not like animals, losers, scumbags, scurge, society's white elephant - HUMAN BEINGS - I think they will be more willing to accept help from someone who isn't treating them like dirt. Call me crazy, but I think I'm onto something - we'll see.

          Anyone that would like to help with any aspect of this is more than welcome to join us. This won't require a huge time commitment - basically right now we're just walking the streets every so often looking for people who are out there. I would like this to be a year round effort as well - when it's beastly hot we could provide relief in the form of bringing them cold beverages and summer clothing. I can't take credit for that idea actually - that would have to go to the other half of the Stop The Bleeding Outreach, Angel. It makes sense, because unfortunately, homelessness is a year round problem.

           So anyone and everyone that cares and wants to be involved, let us know. The only thing I ask of anyone who joins us is that we treat the homeless with the respect and compassion that I firmly believe everyone is entitled to, not the condescension that they're usually met with, often times even by the people who are supposed to be helping them. I would really like to make sure that this is what sets us apart.

          Check back to this page for periodic updates on what we've been up to and what we're planning, and if you'd like to get involved, I can be contacted by e-mail at karmajunction@yahoo.com or by any of the numbers listed on the Contact page.

Peace

Neil Christian Schramm

Founder

Stop The Bleeding

Outreach Update #1 1-25-07

          As some of you know, Angel and I have started the Outreach aspect of Stop The Bleeding. We started hitting the streets of Boston last Wednesday passing out hats, gloves, scarves, earbands, and socks to the homeless and again last night, focusing on the Boston Common/Downtown Crossing area. The first night we went out we moved about half of the clothing, not finding nearly as many homeless people in the Common, anyway, as we expected. As it turns out, this was because the City Of Boston did what's referred to as a "sweep" of the city's homeless - they scoop them up and, hopefully, are actually putting them in a shelter instead of just shoving them out of the park. The jury's still out on that one, but anyway, again last night, targeting the colder of the nights we've had recently, we went out. This time though we ended up talking to them more - something which I definitely want to start doing soon anyway - find out what their situations are and try to literally take them off the streets and get them somewhere where they can get the help they need - but I really wasn't prepared to start doing that just yet - our intention was to go out, distribute, and keep moving so as to help as many people as we can stay warm.
          And then we came across a homeless woman who shall remain nameless, but no longer invisible - Long story sort of short - she's been homeless for 8 months, is diabetic, has a kidney infection which is causing her constant extreme pain, and she is HIV positive. She's 50 years old, cold, tired, and emotionally beaten down by her health issues and by the fact that she's homeless. She was at first wary of us when we first approached her, as if we might do her harm, but within a few minutes was openly telling us about her situation and crying and thanking us for talking to her, because, as she put it, "no one talks to me".
          Do I need to say more? I was crushed - Angel and I both were, and still are - we felt horrible when we eventually left her there - we're not set up to help her to the extent she needs - we did give her whatever we could to keep her warm - but we still feel horrible. Sooooo.............
          Here we go - we're trying to find a shelter for her to go to - this is what Stop The Bleeding is all about - and I wasn't prepared for this this soon, but I don't see any other choice here - she can't just lay there out in the street, essentially waiting to die - no way - I can't live with that - so we are trying to get her somewhere - we've got a couple prospects - but nothing definite yet - so if anyone has any ideas of where she could possibly go or if you know anyone who can help please let us know - even if you have an IDEA that you think MIGHT help - anything - don't be shy - please tell us - maybe this is how we help her - all of us throwing our two cents in to get it done.
Anything.
I'll keep you posted on this, even if it's to tell you we're still working on it.
Any ideas guys?

Peace
Neil Christian Schramm
Founder
Stop The Bleeding
Contact info:

Home phone: 781-480-4152
e-mail : karmajunction@yahoo.com

Outreach Update #2 1-29-07

We went out again Friday night, because it was supposed to be brutally cold, and it was - we found a handful of homeless people out and about, but not many, I'm happy to say. Hopefully this means the city is still doing a sweep and bringing them somewhere when it gets that cold - which begs the question, though, if they can do that a couple weeks ago and last Wednesday and last Friday, why can't they do it all the time? I know it's not quite that simple, but in a way it is. Hmmm...I'm also really happy to say we went looking for the homeless woman we came across last Wednesday, the one we were trying to find a place for in a shelter - and we COULDN'T FIND HER - which I think means the city probably scooped her up. I was unable to find her a bed in a shelter before it got really cold last week, so I'm glad she wasn't out there - which tempts me to go on a rant about the backwards way some of the shelters do things around here, but I'll spare you guys that one. Suffice it to say, when Stop The Bleeding gets it's shelter going, we will be doing things much differently - like, just as a small example, I won't be making the homeless jump through hoops when they need to come in from the cold - bring them in, deal with "procedure" later. First things first - but I digress...
We'll probably be doing this again when we have more hats and gloves and things like that to pass out, so if anyone wants to join us, let us know - it would be really cool to have a bunch of us fanning out over the city passing things out to those who need it, don't you think? And we won't do it on that cold of a night like last Friday - I think we learned our lesson on that one - we'll do it a day or two before it's going to get really cold again -

Allright people-
Peace
Chris

Outreach Update #3 2-27-07

Hey Everybody - I should explain right off why it's been a month since the last update - Apparently, even though I grew up in New England, I still don't know how to dress appropriately for the cold, because somewhere in the process of our first two trips out, I developed a really bad skin irritation on my legs from the cold - some kind of bad chafing/burn/itching type thing - which has just now gone away in the past week or so. I didn't want to go back out until that was gone - so now we're ready and we had planned on going out again tomorrow night but now it looks like we're getting a warmer spell for the next several days so we'll wait until the cold tries to make a comeback. Again, anyone who wants to join us is welcome.

We'll keep you posted.

Peace

Chris

Outreach Update #4 3-6-07

Okay - admittedly I was extremely tired when writing that last update and so consequently it was a little short and vague - so a couple things to add to that - MAN it's cold out today - so we will be going out tonight to pass out more Winter clothing items - and if we don't move all of it tonight we will probably be going back out again this week with the rest of it, as it's supposed to stay this cold for the remainder of the week.

I also wanted to let everyone know that we've been stockpiling more Winter clothing items to pass out in our down time, as well as working on putting together more benefit shows and expanding the STB merchandise catalog. So yeah we're GOING BACK OUT TWICE THIS WEEK - hint - Ha - if anyone wants to come.

Peace

Chris