Protecting and serving the homeless

By BEN SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, May 03, 2009
For the full article please click here.

A cop who encounters a homeless man can ignore him, question him or arrest him. Or he can simply tell him to move on.

Not Jeremy Turner. In his off-hours, the DeKalb County police officer carries on the work his father died for. Turner’s father, an advocate for the homeless, was killed in 1998 while trying to help build a house for a homeless family.

Now, Turner trolls under bridges in the pre-dawn darkness bringing food, first aid and advice for the anonymous and unseen people who live there.

“We’re not here to arrest you,” Turner told a homeless man during a recent foray into that underworld. “We’re not here to hinder you in any way.”

“We have food. We’re taking people to the hospital,” Turner said to the man who had panicked at the sight of a uniformed police officer shining a flashlight on him. On this trip, Turner was there in his official capacity as a DeKalb community police officer.

The man’s name was Bill, just Bill, he said. Like the other residents camped under the bridges along North Peachtree Creek in DeKalb County, Bill had shed his last name as well as his past.

Bill said yes to the bread and doughnuts, no to the offer of a bath and a trip to an alcohol treatment center. But he helped Turner and the officer’s companions, most of them members of various social service agencies, carry Bill’s friend, Miss Cindy, to a waiting ambulance on the street above.

Miss Cindy hadn’t eaten in more than 24 hours and was coughing violently.

“Usually when the police come around, they’re pretty bad,” Bill said. “This one seems real nice.”

Helping people is part of Turner’s family history, but it has come at a price. In 1998, within the space of six months, he suffered the violent deaths of his father, Robert, and his brother, Jonathan.

In July of that year, Jonathan Turner, a servicemen who’d just returned from duty in the Middle East, was struck and killed by a drunken driver after stopping to change a tire for a stranded mother and her infant.

In November 1998, Robert Turner was shot and killed by a robber while trying to defend a handyman working on the house he was building for a homeless family in southeast Atlanta. The slaying not only devastated Robert Turner’s family, it destroyed the charity he had founded, Mission America.

It also compelled Jeremy Turner to become a police officer instead of a salesman or a lawyer, as his father was. Turner worked hard to become a detective in DeKalb’s Robbery/Homicide Unit.

“I didn’t ask for any other assignment,” Turner said.

Turner got the job, but it did not prove to be the cathartic experience he had hoped for. “You can get burned out working robberies and homicides. You’re on call all the time. You’re dealing with a lot of stress,” Turner said. “It can get depressing.”

In 2007, when then-police chief Terrell Bolton set up DeKalb’s community policing program, Turner signed up. He also set out to replace his father’s non-profit. The new organization, Contribute2America, is currently awaiting approval for tax-exempt status, Turner said.

“I think Jeremy Turner personifies the phrase ‘protect and serve,’ ” Joannie Strauss said. “I call him my guardian angel.”

Strauss and Turner met last August. At the time, Strauss said, she was homeless, living in an abandoned house with no heat or electricity.

Strauss, who grew up in the Druid Hills area and is a former licensed clinical social worker, had fallen onto hard times. She’d stopped taking her medication for bipolar disorder and had replaced it with cocaine. Strauss also suffered from a degenerative disk problem in her back that was getting worse.

“The house I lived in had no heat or electricity, but he saw that we had wood in the fireplace,” Strauss said. “There were days when I had nothing to eat. He brought food.”

Turner even found an animal hospital to board Strauss’ two cats at reduced rate while she went into a drug treatment program.

Strauss said she expects to be released from the Ridgeview Institute later this month. After that, according to Strauss and Turner, she will go to work as a part-time resource worker and grant writer for Contribute2America.

When he asked why he spends so much time both on and off duty, away from his wife and children, to help strangers in trouble, Turner said it’s not just altruism that motivates him.

“I think the best gratification any human can get is to help another person.”

For more information on Jeremy Turner and Contribute2America: go to

www.contribute2america.org or call 404-406-4088.

AJC photos by: Jason Getz/jgetz@ajc.com

The C2A Mobile ² Unit is the centerpiece of C2A’s PHASE I initiative.

C2A will create five Community Target Zones.

Every Monday through Friday the C2A Mobile Unit will arrive at a regular destination within the Target Zone. For example, Site 1 on Mondays, Site 2 on Tuesdays, etc.

By establishing a committed, consistent routine, the C2A Mobile Unit will honor the individuals it serves as well as develop trust among communities and among those in need.

Saturdays will be devoted to restocking and stocking goods/supplies for the following weeks’ needs using more available Saturday volunteers.

It should be noted that the funds are still being raised for the implementation of the C2A Mobile ² Unit initiative. We hope to launch our first unit by May 2009. To contribute to the C2A Mobile ² Unit fund, please visit the donation page, and specify MOBILE in your online donation.

C2A Vouchers will connect those in need to services
provided by other organizations, institutions and/or agencies.

C2A Vouchers will provide income to other organizations, track referrals for each individual case file, and assess appropriately to assist in streamlining referrals.

The goal of C2A vouchers will be to quickly connect individuals to the services they need and to provide informed assessments and details to those service providers.

For example, a medical voucher will refer an individual to a particular volunteer physician or streamline the process for ER mass providers like the Grady Healthcare System.
A meal or shelter voucher, for example, will deliver matching funds to a shelter or food service provider for addressing the individuals’ needs.
Every voucher will be issued and recorded within the individual’s case file to track for follow-up, financial planning and for managing case plans, as well as monitoring those who may seek to take advantage of the system.
Award Vouchers- After three months, consistent individuals will be able to redeem completed addiction, mental health and service related vouchers for additional goods or funds for the completion of qualifying programs and/or community service.

The PHASE I goal of the Zone Strategy:

To reconnect with the forgotten individual in Atlanta.
To make a personal commitment to each person, and deliver basic needs to each, as part of a reliable and consistent routine.
To attract, support and encourage individuals in need.
To provide tailored resources, on a neighborhood level, to alleviate the burden of the under-served on community assets, services and citizens.
To connect with, benefit from, and financially support other community organizations.

To raise funds, both for Contribute2America, and for the organizations and communities with whom C2A works.

C2A will create five Community Target Zones.

Every Monday through Friday the C2A Mobile Unit will arrive at a regular destination within the Target Zone. For example, Site 1 on Mondays, Site 2 on Tuesdays, etc.

By establishing a committed, consistent routine, the C2A Mobile Unit will honor the individuals it serves as well as develop trust among communities and among those in need.

You can download our current Zone Plan here. Please note, as our support increases, we will be able to add additional Target Zones.

The C2A Mobile Unit will help individuals in need and reconnect
them with their community by welcoming them into a reliable system of help.

The C2A Mobile Unit will build and maintain a case file and weekly “needs list” for every individual who registers with C2A.

The case files and needs inventories will automatically sync to the C2A Headquarters to be serviced, addressed and delivered on the next community visit the same day the following week.

ID Cards will be issued to encourage individuals to maintain routine, provide vital information, and to maintain accurate case files and needs lists.
ID Cards will list essential medical and emergency contact information.
If an individual needs a jacket, for example, it’s entered under their unique case file and C2A will have a jacket for them on the regular visit the very next week.

Should an individual need minor medical care, it will be provided and added to their case file for future reference, follow-ups or referrals.
Rations of food, clean water, blankets and toiletries will be distributed every day.
The C2A Mobile unit will also issue C2A Vouchers to individuals and track vouchers in individuals’ case files.

Contribute2America is based in Atlanta, and our hometown is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the power of C2A’s core philosophy and innovative approach to improving a city, one individual, one neighborhood at a time.

Every successful seed needs to to be planted in fertile ground, and Atlanta is that place for C2A. And, as Atlanta continues it’s incredible growth, C2A arrives just in time to insure that our neighborhoods evolve to be stronger every day, by meeting the needs of those who might otherwise be left behind in the progress. By making certain that every individual counts in the picture of any city, C2A supports both those and need, and secures the larger community for all.

Atlanta is both our home base and our first priority. The initiatives C2A proves effective here, have national application. This is our proving ground and we are committed to the rapid and impressive transformation of our city.

If you live in the metro Atlanta area, your donations will go directly to improving your city immediately. If you are local, and wish to volunteer, your help is always welcome. It’s truly rewarding to help those closest to us.

The Real Estate market has been unpredictable at best. Contribute2America, however, is a hedge against uncertain economic conditions. And, our transitional neighborhoods, the source of some of our most ambitious investments are truly at risk as our overall economy continues to waver.

How?

Quite simply. By addressing the communities’ needy individuals, cooperating with neighborhood leaders, governments and law enforcement… by truly solving problems at the local level, C2A makes quick and effective progress in bolstering home values for that community.

When crime is down, when our streets are clean, and every member of our society is contributing to the common good of the neighborhood, our community increases it’s desirability to others.

By making a donation to support C2A today, you are actually investing in your real estate future. Feel free to specify which Zone you’d like to support primarily when you complete your online donation form.

Together we can change our world exponentially.

What makes C2A truly a unique force for changing lives, is that we believe entirely in the power of one-on-one interaction with those in need. Using our staff’s many years of experience in the field, C2A goes where the need is. Many homeless individuals rarely leave their immediate location, and faraway services are often out of reach.

Not only does C2A bring services directly to those in need, our commitment to personal care means we address each client as a whole person, an individual, each with his or her own unique situation. We assist each neighborhood individually as well. Community leaders know what makes their community special, and the special challenges their community faces.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution to ending chronic homelessness, fortunately, we know it.

Though our efforts, we hope to deliver both a measurable, and accountable, system of progress for each individual… for each community… and hopefully extend the reach of more traditional aiding organizations and institutions.