Hello! What a time we live in…. I want to start off by saying thank you for continuing to stand by our work and supporting The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center despite the current environment of our country and world. As the President and CEO of The Bridge, I am proud of the amazing supporters who continue to uplift our Guests and care about homeless recovery.
October 1 of each year is the start of a new fiscal year at The Bridge, and we have been spending the last several days getting our legs underneath us as we plan for how things will look moving forward and into fiscal year 2021 after the challenges fiscal year 2020 brought our way. A part of ending the fiscal year is evaluating what we have managed, and we have determined that two key barriers we were faced in pursuing our mission were Covid-19 and Racial Injustice.
Covid-19 prompted a myriad of complications including the loss of major fundraising events, increase in dollars spent on Covid-19 spread reduction supplies, hiring more facilities employees, and unfortunately having to reduce the number of Guests we could safely have on our campus. As a result of our strong relationship with the City of Dallas, Guests we could no longer shelter at The Bridge could be placed in temporary shelter at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and a local hotel. Additionally, we were grateful to all of you who donated personal protective items and your treasure to help us keep our campus Covid-19 free. Even though we needed to reimagine how to compassionately deliver basic services, and coach our employees and Guest’s toward a renewed discipline of personal hygiene, we are lucky to say we have remained a Covid-19 free campus!
In fiscal year 2020 we also had to consider the specter of racial injustice, personally and in our relationships with our Guests. We have been communicating about how we can place this emotional challenge in a manageable place and best serve the needs of our Guests. We have implemented trainings for both our employees and Guests, designed at increasing awareness and offering skills and techniques which improve our competencies.
Unfortunately, these challenges and the required reduction in the daily day shelter and night shelter census on campus precluded us from seeing the number of Guests we would otherwise have engaged. But we intensified our work with those we could safely accommodate daily and we sustained progress toward the successes we hoped to achieve, including increasing the percentage of Guests linked to a Care Manager, increasing those Guests engaging our Peer Support Team, and placing Guests into housing. We continue to set high goals for supporting our Guests as we roll into the new fiscal year and manage the challenges Covid-19 presents.
The Bridge has a focus on assisting our Guests with “finding the way over”. This new fiscal year we will be concentrating on The Way Over, ensuring that those who come on to our campus experience being wanted, but more importantly that they also feel welcome. We have assumed that both characteristics are who we are. I want to know that each concept fuels the experience of all we engage on our campus this fiscal year, making recovery The Way Over for Dallas neighbors experiencing homelessness and seeking a home of their own.
I hope you will partner with us this fiscal year, 2021, and support our Guests on their journey toward homeless recovery!
Wishing you a safe and healthy close to 2020…
David Woody, III
