West Broadway Neighborhood Association is partnering with House of Hope Community Development Corporation to provide outreach and supportive services to homeless and housing insecure individuals in the Dexter Training Ground area.
The two organizations were awarded individual Dexter Donation Grants last year to collaboratively implement the Dexter Training Ground Outreach Pilot Program, which will start this July. The program will use peer outreach workers to assess needs and advocate for connections to appropriate resources and supportive services, including housing, healthcare, income, and immigration assistance.
As part of this partnership, House of Hope welcomes members of the WBNA and the broader community to be trained in and participate in outreach. This volunteer opportunity includes attending a training session with the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project and doing street outreach on Broad Street with House of Hope outreach workers in the next several weeks. Volunteers are being sought now to assist with this project.
The outreach pilot program has the twofold goal of 1) assisting individuals who are homeless or housing insecure in the Dexter Training Ground area; and 2) ensuring that the park remains a safe and welcome space for all. Work is focused on building partnerships and relationships, respecting diversity, and forming solutions.
If you would like to participate, please contact Megan Smith at megan@thehouseofhopecdc.org or (401) 484-0234 (call or text) or Sara Melucci at smelucci_7415@email.ric.edu or (401) 287-7808 (call or text).
The Dexter Donation is a trust established in 1824 under the will of Ebenezer Knight Dexter "to ameliorate the condition of the poor, and to contribute to their comfort and relief." It is fitting that the Dexter Training Ground Outreach Pilot Program will focus on the very land that Ebenezer Knight Dexter bequeathed to the city and on which his statue now stands.
Learn more about the history of Ebenezer Knight Dexter's life and philanthropy in this article reprinted by permission of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.