A LITTLE HISTORY
5 years ago a few homeless people got together. Several of us were Senior Adults. After a long gripe session we realized that the system of services administered by the government and large nonprofits was not designed to get us off the streets. This realization made us angry. We decided to find out if there were any successful programs in the country that were effectively reducing the homeless population.
We spent 3 years researching over 100 cities and 10 foreign countries We went back 20 years and found a few elements in different programs that were successful in getting our unhoused populations off the streets and into permanent housing. Our research uncovered a number of similar patterns.
We started asking ourselves How to?, What if? and Why can’t we? questions. We needed new approaches that could accelerate bold new ideas and programs that would rapidly move our Unhoused populations off the streets and secure our Seniors independence.
We wondered:
- How do we reach our unhoused neighbors who are in trauma and don’t trust the system anymore?
- How do we find and help our venerable Seniors who are increasingly ignored, feeling un-useful and living in poverty?
- How do we create a spark of a positive future in 2 separate but similarly affected populations that have lost their hope?
- How do we provide our participants with the resources they really need when they need them if we don’t have control or have immediate access to them? (see Resources).
- What kinds of coaching and mentoring programs (see Learning), must we develop to enhance our Participants Physical, Mental, Social, Financial, Family and Spiritual wellbeing?
- How do we provide our participants everything they need to become independent in a compressed time frame?
- How do we help them achieve sustainable lifetime independence at a cost that will allow us to multiply our efforts at speeds never before thought of? ( see Launching Pads).
We asked hundreds of people very specific questions. We found that when we asked the right questions the answers became the right way to do something. Those answers form the Bounceback pathways of empowering our participants with the resources and personal relationships THEY MUST HAVE to create their new future. These programs have all been micro tested. Now it’s time to implement our strategies on the streets.
Bounceback was incorporated in the state of Washington on 07/17/2018 as a non profit charity organization. We spent the next 2 years refining and testing every program realizing that we were literally involving ourselves in peoples lives and mistakes from faulty research or self imposed time restraints were not going to be permitted.
We launched our programs in Lake City, Wa. on May 7, 2020, with our first Gourmet Dinner Gathering. We are now hosting every Friday and Saturday night. See (Dinner Gatherings). We are passing out info packets and engaging in one on one conversations. We are exposing parts of our program to our target populations.
Since May 7, 2020 we have met and gotten to know over 100 Unhoused and Senior neighbors through our Dinner Gatherings. In only 2 months over 60 of our neighborhood’s most vulnerable have filled out our applications to become a Participant in Bounceback’s Launching Pad Program. These amazing people are beginning to work on themselves and are getting involved in a neighborhood movement whose potential can change our world.
Many of our Seniors are beginning the formation of committees to address the issues of poverty and Social Isolation that plagues that population. We are slowly showing them the many volunteer opportunities that will exist to challenge their experience and wisdom. They will be much more than “useful”. Their opportunities will include literally saving peoples lives.
Our programs are being implemented in an organic method by our new Participants. We are seeing signs of hope and enthusiasm light up their faces. We are making numerous partnerships in the business community. Our Participants are starting to volunteer for neighborhood projects. Many of our Participants have already gotten their ID’s, a bank account and their first stimulus checks. We are speed walking with an understanding that time is of the essence, especially now, in this perilous time. We’re on the move with this grassroots movement. All we need is you!