Manual for Homeless Christmas Wish List
Shared by: jianghongl
-
Stats
- views:
- 1
- posted:
- 1/5/2012
- language:
- pages:
- 12
Document Sample
Manual for Homeless Christmas Wish List
Contents
Summation of Christmas Wish List project 1
History and Future Plans for the Christmas Wish List project
including spin-off application for global peace……God willing 2-3
Five Stage Summation of the Christmas Wish List process: 3-4
Stage One - Identify Coordinator and Webmaster, then talk to Shelters
Stage Two - Recruitment of volunteers See “Form for Volunteers” attached
a) Spokespersons
b) Interviewers
c) Typists
d) General Publicity.
Stage Three- Conducting Interviews
Stage Four - Media (see “Media Procedure” below) and Gift/Card Delivery
Stage Five - Thank yous
Job Descriptions 5-9
Job Description of Coordinator
Job Description of the Webmaster
Job Description for the Spokesperson
Job Description for Typists
Job Description for Interviewers
Job Description of General Publicity Volunteer
Media Procedure 9-10
Topics to Discuss with Shelters 10-11
Presentation to Council, School Board and other Politicians 11-12
Suggested Timeline 13
1
Summation of Christmas Wish List project:
Two key positions of Coordinator and Webmaster are identified. One or both of them meet with
local shelters to determine whether the project is welcome. A suggested agenda for this meeting is
part of this manual (see “Topics to Discuss with Shelters” below) . If the project is approved by the
shelters, the Coordinator and Webmaster work together to recruit volunteers and proceed with the
project.
Homeless people are interviewed either by a volunteer or by filling out an interview form
themselves which they receive from a shelter. They write/talk about what they want for Christmas
and give a little bit of biographical information-only what they feel comfortable sharing. Only first
names and last initials are used for anonymity. ID numbers are created by the shelters so gifts can
be distributed efficiently. The interviews are typed by volunteers and loaded onto the website.
Publicity is created through the use of the media (newspaper, TV and radio) as well as the
distribution of posters, contacts through the internet, announcements and appeals to churches,
schools, businesses, governmental representatives, and other organizations. This publicity is for the
purpose of encouraging members of the community to go the website, read the stories, buy a gift
and/or card and deliver it to the shelter identified by the homeless person.
If possible, the gift recipients can be provided with paper and pen and encouraged to write thank
you notes which can be posted on the city website after Christmas.
The project has been very well received by the media, shelters, community and churches, receiving
national media and thousands of personalized gifts for the homeless. It is a powerful form of
encouragement to everyone involved, all while holding up the name of Jesus to the community,
leading the way for the community to at last, have a constructive way to help the poor.
History and Future Plans for the Christmas Wish List project……God willing
In 2005 the Christmas Wish List was conducted in Vancouver, BC, Canada, by members of the
church of Christ with a lead time of only about 4 weeks. However, despite the short time, it was
wildly successful, bringing in about 2,000 gifts for the 150 homeless people who were on the list.
In 2006 the project was conducted in Vancouver and Calgary with similar results. Each person on
the both of the Christmas Wish list websites received a gift and many received several duplicates of
their wish list.
The media was extremely supportive with wide coverage in local and national newspapers on radio
and on local and national TV.
In 2007, Vancouver, Calgary, Chicago Illinois and the Manhattan church in New York city
participated in the project with over 900 interviews listed on the website.
Calgary had over 600 interviews listed and received gift pledges for the vast majority.
Vancouver had about 300 interviews listed and received gift pledges for each gift, for each person
listed on the site.
The American cities had a lack of media, but the church members provided most of the gifts for
those listed on the site.
2
The plan for 2008 is to increase community awareness without total dependency on the media for
publicity by contacting 6 sectors in each town:
1&2) government and businesses - to include publicity for the project to their employees,
3) schools – to encourage students to have presentations by church members to raise their awareness
about the homeless and take on some of those listed on the website as class projects
4) churches – encouraging them to help with volunteer work of typing, interviewing as well as
doing publicity within their own groups for website visits
5) Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – to encourage them to use their own networking
means like inclusion in newsletters, emails and other connections for publicity of the project.
6) Celebrities – to create more media with photo opportunities
The long term plan for the project is to encourage every church of Christ in every city that has
homeless people to participate in the project.
Global Plan
The even longer term goal of this project is to use the story/wish list-sharing template for global
peace-making. Based on the principal that “an enemy is someone whose story you do not know” –
listing stories of individual people who are in need, in other countries, especially in war-torn areas
so that connections can be made between those of diverse political, cultural and religious views.
It is hoped that once the Christmas Wish List project receives media attention in North America, it
can be used as a platform to launch a larger peace initiative.
Five Stage Summation of the Christmas Wish List process:
Stage One - Identify Coordinator and Webmaster, then talk to Shelters
Two volunteers from the local church are identified:
1. a Coordinator (see Job Description below) to organize volunteers, printed materials, events,
media and other publicity, and
2. a Webmaster (see Job Description below) to set up, input data and maintain the local website.
Each of these positions may or may not, depending on the numbers of people involved, wish to
recruit assistants.
The first step to see if the project is viable is to contact the local shelters in the city to see if they
want to take on the Christmas Wish List project. (see “Topics to Discuss with Shelters” below). If
the shelters want to participate, then the Coordinator recruits volunteers from the church and the
community and proceeds to Stage Two.
Stage Two - Recruitment of volunteers See “Volunteers List” attached
The Coordinator communicates with friends, family, small groups, and/or church members and
leadership to recruit volunteers from the church(es) and community. This can be done through
announcements in services, meetings with leadership, bulletin submissions, flyers or any other way
that is appropriate for the congregation. Using the attached Form for Volunteers helps to coordinate
each person’s available times and specific jobs that people volunteer for.
3
Volunteers will be needed for the following tasks:
1) Spokespersons --2 people for this position is ideal. It’s convenient if the Webmaster and
Coordinator can fill one or both of these roles, but this position can also be filled by others who are
personally convicted about the project. See “Job Description for Spokesperson” below. It usually
happens that people who are good at coordinating details are disinclined to do media and vs. But
media can be done by anyone who has the sincere desire to do so.
2) Interviewers -those willing to conduct interviews with homeless people See “Job Description for
Interviewers” below.
3) Typists -those willing to type interviews and send them via email to the webmaster who will post
them on the website. See “Job Description for Typists” below. Also needed is for typists who will
volunteer after Christmas to input the thank you notes from the gift recipients.
4) General Publicity -those willing to circulate posters, make announcements and presentations to
groups, request donations, meet with political representatives and send emails about the project. See
“Job Description General Publicity” below.
Stage Three- Conducting Interviews
After discussion with the shelters about the appropriate times and places for interviews, all
volunteers wanting to participate in interviews should be notified. Email lists make this job much
easier rather than using the phone. If phones are used, a phone tree is recommended -- where one
person calls several others, who call several others.
Blank interview forms can be left at the shelters for homeless people to fill out themselves. A
schedule to pick up the completed interview forms will be decided, this should happen every few
days. The sooner the interviews are typed and posted on the web, the more likely their wishes will
be granted.
Stage Four - Media (see “Media Procedure” below) and Gift/Card Delivery
The Coordinator arranges to contact all media outlets in the area, that is, newspapers, TV, radio, and
magazines. One or two spokespersons are identified to speak about the project.
Early media can be arranged to cover the presentations to Council and/or School Board if this
option is chosen. See “Presentation to Council, School Board and other Politicians”
After the interviews are conducted and posted on the website, the media is notified so that members
of the community will go to the website and read the biographical stories and respond by
purchasing the requested gift(s). Gift(s) and/or cards are prepared with the personal identification as
specified on the website, then delivered to the appropriate shelter. The shelter then distributes the
gifts and cards to the recipients.
Stage Five - Thank yous
Paper and pens are distributed with the gifts. Arrangements should be made with the shelter to have
the thank you notes delivered to the coordinator or appropriate volunteer. The thank yous are added
directly to the website in the same way as the interviews.
4
Job Descriptions
Job Description of Coordinator
This position should be taken on by someone who can work full time on the project during the
month of December and part time during the month of November.
If you choose to make a presentation to the municipal or city council, School Board or other
organization, you may need to start before November to make an appointment. Many of the tasks
for the Coordinator can be shared with the Webmaster and vice versa. This can be decided on an
individual basis.
The Coordinator should be highly motivated by the project with a thorough understanding of the
goals. A fairly high level of resourcefulness and persistence will be needed when attempting to
identify and make contact with the right person at media outlets. Organizational skills, like the
capacity to foresee details that will be needed, for example, if you set up a table to recruit volunteers
you should have pens and volunteer forms ready before people arrive to sign up or when planning
for interviews, space needs should be previously viewed. People skills are required to communicate
effectively with shelters, volunteers, the media and the community. Saying “thank you” sincerely,
is a big part of the job and you will be rewarded with many many thank yous in return.
The first job of the Coordinator is to contact the shelters to see if they want to undertake the project.
Using the “Topics to Discuss with Shelters” agenda below, discuss the various aspects of the
project, recognizing that the shelter staff members are the experts when it comes to the details.
Then, if the project is welcome, the Coordinator begins the process of volunteer recruitment from
the churches and community.
The Coordinator recruits volunteers from their own congregations and others, as well as from the
community, whatever the Coordinator and church finds most comfortable. The Coordinator and
local church may want to consider appealing to other organizations including other religions.
Working together on a project to help the poor may be an ideal way to build bridges, promote
mutual understanding and demonstrate Jesus’ love. Keeping in mind that for the name of Jesus to be
lifted up, and for God to get the glory is the ultimate goal of this project so media presentations and
website appearance are the two vehicles to ensure that this message is communicated to the
community.
The list of volunteers should most efficiently be kept in 3 separate email lists (typists, interviewers,
and general publicity) as well as one combined list so messages can be sent out to each group
separately or all at once.
The Coordinator also:
1. manages the discussion of the project with provide additional information about the plight
church leadership, including any media of the homeless in the area
decisions that may be required 3. manages printing of any materials including
2. collects information about the local posters for display, (see Poster attached)
homeless situation including statistics as interview forms, (see Interview Form attached)
well as links to other websites which can
5
4. ensures that interview forms are 12. liasons with participating churches or other
transferred from the interview volunteers supporting organizations which want to be
to typists, and provide typists with specific listed on website ensuring that information that
instructions appears on the website is as requested (this can
5. organizes schedule of interviews with also be handled by Webmaster)
shelters between the homeless and 13. encourages all supporting organizations to
volunteers as well as any preliminary include www.homelesspartners.com on their
interview skills training needed own website.
6. manages volunteers participating in the 14. encourages churches to print off the names
“General Publicity” - identifying their and individual stories of homeless people who
strengths and distributing tasks are still ungifted, for the Sunday before
appropriately Christmas to be inserted into bulletins
7. writes and distributes press release (see 15. encourages participating churches to
template Press Release attached). conduct complementary sermons and Sunday
8. keeps list of names and phone numbers of school class topics about helping the poor
homeless- friendly reporters from shelter 16. ensures that shelters provide paper and
workers and arrange times and locations pencil for gift recipients’thank you notes and
for spokesperson(s). arrangements are made for the transfer to the
9. assists Webmaster to address special appropriate person after Christmas.
requests originating from Website 17. try to find someone (preferably a young
10. encourages children’s Sunday school person) who wants to mentor the process of
classes to draw personal cards for the organization. They can also function as an
homeless assistant. All the skills for this project are
11. discusses with churches possibility of transferable to other good works projects.
using churches as drop off sites for gift
packages
Job Description of the Webmaster
This position may require only a part time worker. The Webmaster can also be the spokesperson
since they are well aware of numbers of interviews and other information on the website. The
Webmaster works closely with the Coordinator and shares tasks as negotiated between the two
including:
1. Get all information and graphics for display on website
2. Review all interviews received from volunteer on website for appropriateness. No inflammatory
or objectionable material should be included in any stories. Also ensure that no identifying
information is included. A decision should be made with the coordinator about whether to allow
extravagant requests.
3. Include accurate information about the local sponsoring churches
4. Include link to the local church(es) website
5. Include statistics and other information about the local homeless situation
6. Placement of link and logo of each participating shelter or other supportive organizations (the
more, the better)
7. Attend to special questions and requests received via website
8. Ensure that all information about shelter address and specific times and location for gift delivery
is accurate and up to date
6
Job Description for the Spokesperson
Two people for this position is ideal. This ensures that one is available when the other is occupied
with another interview. However more than 2 spokespersons may cause confusion. Usually the time
requirements for interviews starts slow, at the beginning of December, but as Christmas gets closer,
the requests for interviews increase. Most all of the interviews will be conducted during business
hours but there may be the occasional request in evenings or weekends.
It’s a great encouragement for members of the church to see “one of their own” letting their light
shine to the community with their good works (Matt. 5:16).
The spokesperson will need to be prepared to talk to newspaper reporters, speak live on radio, and
appear on TV - live and recorded. In preparation for the media contact, the spokesperson should
consider the central messages they want to communicate and succinctly express those thoughts.
Media is usually used in “8 second sound bites” so try to condense what you want to say without
being “wordy”. Sincerity is the primary quality that should be communicated to the media.
Some suggestions to try to include:
1. The website: homelesspartners.com or simply say “google homeless partners”. This can
never be emphasized too much. Several people have said that they saw the report on TV but
missed the website address. It’s good to get copies of all the media to monitor how it’s being
perceived. Once, a major TV outlet had the wrong website on the early news. When I called
them and let them know, they made the change for the next airing of the report.
2. Emphasize the “connection” aspect of the project. This project provides people with a way
to “connect personally and directly” with those less fortunate. Be sure not to be over zealous
in claims that the project is a cure-all for homelessness, rather a structure to call attention to
the problem and give people who want to help, a healthy effective way to do it.
3. Study statistics and general information about the homeless problem in the area. Without
claiming to be an expert, have some knowledge of the topic, especially on the local level.
4. Mention that volunteers are from the church and that helping the poor is central to the
message of Jesus. The most important goal of the project is to bring glory to God through
helping others.
5. Mention that “GRACE” is one of the most important concepts in Christianity and is also
very unique among other religions. We believe that God shows us grace, and it is our job as
Christians to extend that grace to others.
Job Description for Typists
The primary directive in typing is: Do the Best You Can. Sometimes they will be difficult to discern
the handwriting so just use your best guess about what the intention is.
Most of the stories are short, but some are extensive. Communicate to the Coordinator or
Webmaster how much or how many interviews you are willing to take on and Let them know
when they will be finished and Don’t take on more than you can manage. Getting them on the
website quickly will help to ensure their gift requests are granted.
Use common sense when editing. Ensure that no objectionable or inflammatory language or content
is included. Remember that the purpose of the Wish List is encouragement for everyone involved.
The Webmaster will try to review each story but if there are large numbers of interviews it will
7
primarily be up to the typist to edit for appropriateness. If there is any question, contact the
Webmaster or Coordinator. Also, any messages that may indicate concern regarding
suicide/homicide or other risk to themselves or others should be reported immediately to the shelter
or place of interview origin.
Attempt to make a story. Using the questions on the interview form, combine the answers to make
as much of a story as possible. For example:
Name: John J. Birthdate: May 20, 1950 Gender: Male
Question: How long have you been in the city? Answer: 5 years
Typing this information into a story would look like:
John is a 57 year old man who has been living in the city for 5 years.
Job Description for Interviewers
Interviewing can be done only with church volunteers or can be opened to the public. If there are a
large number of people who want to do interviews with the homeless, the important thing is that the
Interviewers are prepared and the shelter staff is in agreement. The shelter can provide some
orientation for half hour or so just before the interviews take place. Consider the Shelter staff as
experts, so cooperate with whatever guidelines they establish. There is also a brochure,
entitled“Interviewing Skills” which can be printed or emailed to all participating Interviewers on
request.
Establish morning, afternoon and/or evening times for interviewing to accommodate volunteers’
varying work schedule.
Interviews can take place in shelters, or for the most experienced interviewers, with the homeless on
the street. If the interviews take place on the street, be sure they specify which of the participating
shelters they want to go to for their gift/card pick-up as well as when they will pick it up. The
shelters can only hold the gift for a specified period of time and then will have to give it to someone
else.
The interviews usually last about 10-20 minutes. The interviews include 4 or 5 questions that cover
some biographical information (using first names only) and their wish list for Christmas. Examples
of questions are: Where are you from originally? How long have you been in this city?
A Release of Information should be signed by each person being interviewed at the bottom of the
interview form. This Release form should be approved by the shelter.
Job Description of General Publicity Volunteer
1. Make presentations to groups about project to recruit additional volunteers and drive traffic
to website.
2. Circulate poster at grocery store, in businesses, libraries, in public assembly areas, at Drs.
and dentist’s offices, lunch rooms, and in school classrooms.
8
3. Encourage announcement of Christmas Wish List project in church bulletins, on Sunday
morning, in school classes, and showing the promotional DVD to the congregation.
4. Encourage children’s Sunday school classes to create personalized cards for the homeless
5. Look for ways to post homelesspartners.com on the web - on personal sites, on discussion
boards, chat rooms, and inclusion on other organization’s websites
6. Seek businesses that will make general contributions like coupons for coffee or food items,
clothing items or other items frequently listed on Wish Lists.
7. Attend Municipal, City Council and/or School Board meetings to show support for the
presenter who is asking for endorsement
8. Meet with legislative representatives to inform them about the project and ask them what
they can do to provide support. This helps to encourage the politicians, who ultimately have
the responsibility to make homeless-friendly decisions, as they become aware of their
constituents’ support for those decisions.
Media Procedure
1. Identify spokesperson(s): check schedule availability, exchange phone numbers and email
accessibility.
2. Write press release-see attached example. This should almost always be done via email.
3. Contact shelters for homeless-friendly reporters in each media-get names and phone
numbers reporters -- cell phone numbers are especially valuable. Be very grateful for these.
4. Find all printed publications that may be appropriate, listen to radio & TV stations to
identify the homeless-friendly. Make list of all newspapers, radio, possible magazines and TV
stations with phone numbers.
5. Keep on-going record of who called, what number was used, what time the call took place,
who you spoke with, outcome of conversation, when to call back. This will help keep a record
for the person next year. BE PERSISTENT but friendly and always express gratitude for their
interest.
An example of notes from an initial call to the media: (using abbreviations)
CBC-TV 12.5 (date) cld (called) main # 555.5555 spk(spoke) to Mary. Sd (said) CB (call back)
5 pm ask for Tom. 5pm tt (talked to) Tom sd. snd (send) PR (Press Release)
12.6 cld 555.5555 tt Tom sd. might do story tom.(tomorrow) CB after 5 pm
6. On the first call, ask who you should send the press release to. Have a less than 30 second
succinct description of the project. For example:
”My name is _____________. I’m wanting to send a press release about a project we’re
undertaking to help homeless people. We interview them, ask them what they want for
Christmas, get a little biographical information then put that on the website:
homelesspartners.com. Then people in the community can read their stories, buy them a gift and
take it to the shelter. Who could I talk to about this project?”
9
7. Always call to see if they received your press release after you’ve sent it. This step is very
important because many times they have so many press releases that they get lost in the shuffle.
It also provides more opportunity to establish more of a personal relationship with them
8. Target newspapers first. The TV people read the newspapers. Go for the smallest, daily
newspapers first. If you have enough lead time, try for magazines or publications that have
weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly circulation.
9. Suggest that some of the media interviews could be conducted with children in classrooms
(Sunday school or Elementary or High schools) who are preparing to help the homeless - by
looking at the website, talking in groups about their plans to purchase gifts or young children
creating cards. These provide great visuals that communicate what the project is all about.
10. Identify celebrities who may be willing to have TV or newspaper photos with homeless. To
find them, consult their celebrity website, ask media people you have contacted or call any local
associations or movie related unions or organizations who might work with them. Also look for
celebrity agents who book events for their clients. Try to arrange a photo op with the celebrity
doing an interview with a homeless person, handing out gifts to the homeless, receiving gifts
from the donors or any other photo they may want to be involved in. It’s good press for them,
good for the shelter, good for the homeless and all while they are driving traffic to a website that
brings glory to God. The church leadership may want to be consulted about the celebrities that
are used.
11. Additional publicity can be generated by contacting large corporations and schools
requesting that they include a message about the project to be included in their employee email
and posters put up in their lunch rooms.
Topics to Discuss with Shelters:
First of all, talk to shelters to see if shelter staff is agreeable to project. Usually, those higher in the
managerial framework are the most supportive.
Agenda for discussion with the shelters:
1. Discuss plan for what they will do with many, many gifts. Prepare them for the distinct
possibility of a large response from the community. Pre-planning will help relieve Christmas Eve
and Morning extra labour.
2. Discuss how many extra volunteers they may need. Most shelters have an abundance of people
who want to volunteer during Christmas. If they have enough lead time they can schedule their
volunteers for this task.
3. Discuss the interview form to be conducted with the homeless and leave it with shelter staff for:
edits and questions.
4. Determine the most efficient ID #s -- This should be based on the individual identity: using first
names only for anonymity and last initial. We found it effective to use the numerical value of the
birthdate, e.g. May 24, 1950 becomes 052450 plus using a code for the intended location of the
gift-- giving the floor or room number. Calgary, who received thousands of gifts, sorted gifts first
by last initial, then used the birthdates for more specific sorting.
5. Discuss Release of Information section and include any edits they request
10
6. Discuss whether they want to add a question allowing the community to contact the homeless
person directly for work-hiring,
7. Discuss any other additions, deletions or improvements to the interview form.
8. Discuss how/when the blank interview forms will be given out.
9. Define specific dates for cut off of interview acceptance and scheduling of interview times.
10. Discuss logistics of conducting interviews including times, locations, numbers of
Interviewers and Interviewees expected, traffic “flow”, training requirements for Interviewers
and any safety issues.
11. Discuss policy on duplicate gifts- when one person receives duplicates of gifts, do they give
them all to the person who they are intended for or are duplicates given to someone who has
none. The shelter staff is best at determining this.
12. Discuss the possibility of using the church as alternative gift drop off location and the
transport and sorting of those gifts and cards.
10. If you have some place that can be used as a central drop-off for multiple shelters, talk with
them about this option.
11. Ask them to include the Homelesspartners.com website on their website
12. Check with person at the front desk to ensure that they are aware of the project. Sometimes
directives from the administration are not always communicated clearly to the front line staff
who receive calls and direct walk-in traffic.
13. Discuss the collection of thank you notes after gifts have been distributed and make
arrangements for them to be directed to the appropriate person.
Presentation to Council, School Board and other Politicians
Each city may have a different way of approaching this task. Some Councils ask for a letter to be
sent to the Mayor and Council requesting permission to make a formal presentation. Sometimes this
can be done by simply calling a specific committee that would deal with “Community Services”
type issues.
If you call the main number and just describe what you want to accomplish you will be directed to
someone.
Remember, be persistent, polite and specific. This is what you want:
1. To have homeless partners.com on their website
2. To have an email of the Homelesspartners poster and website, with an endorsement, sent to all
employees
3. To have a Homelesspartners poster and website circulated to each school classroom of all ages.
Sometimes the School Board should be approached directly. The most important thing is that the
students in the individual classrooms hear about the project so they can, as a class, do something to
help. This may result in several students grouping to buy gifts for one or more or simply writing or
drawing cards. Even the youngest children can draw pictures and write cards that will melt a heart
of stone.
Political representatives can also be requested to add their support. Call their office, speak to them
on the phone and/or better yet, make an appointment so you can let them know about the project
and ask for their suggestions about how they could support it. The bottom line is that decisions that
11
will make a significant difference in the lives of homeless people is up to the political
representatives. This project is a positive way to solicit their support and let them know their
constituents encourage those decisions.
Suggested Timeline
September - Coordinator and Webmaster identified
October 1 - meet with shelters to determine the viability of the project.
First and Second week of Oct. - recruit volunteers and begin attempts to make contact with any
celebrities you may want to use for December photo opportunities.
Third week Nov. hold meetings with volunteers, send emails and specify who is doing what
First week of December - arrange for interviews to be conducted by volunteers in person and make
blank interview forms available at shelters. Begin listing interviews on website. Note- It’s important
that interviews are not conducted too far in advance, as the homeless population is extremely
transient. Collect interviews and post on website
Second week of December begin sending press releases to media. Set up interviews with media.
Schedule celebrity photo opportunities to promote the project.
Third week of December - cut off acceptance of new interviews to be posted
December 26 –Collect thank yous from gift recipients and post on website.
Last week of December (optional) call media who covered story to see if they want to do a follow-
up story.
12
