YWAM's Tenderloin walk 3/07/24

Kyle, one of the Street Outreach Captains knew a lot of people

One woman came up and hugged him, but he didn’t know her. He hugged her anyway because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

Team B shared some people already knew about WYAM. Half of the people we met in team A already knew YWAM.

When we were out during today's hot cocoa outreach, people were asking if it was Friday since that is the main evening they go around and serve coco to people in the neighborhood

How do you approach speaking with people who speak different languages?

Luckily the staff at YWAM are fairly international, so amount them, there is usually someone who can speak the needed language

There’s always some kind of barrier

Be patient, and present because some people might come in with developmental disabilities or a fog from drug use

The important question It’s not, “Does this person have access to resources?”, but “Are they willing to follow through on those resources?

Relationship first means having someone to have a platform of trust, and support you through it

We try to earn the right to be heard

Respect is needed

Plan would be to get to know them for 9 months, see them consistently and in 9 months then you could have a conversation about accountability and getting healthier

Part of this is getting out there and learning people’s names

If he is saying no to every suggestion, you can ask: “How can I support you/What can I do for you?”

It often start with a game of pool

We are not diagnosing people, we come as a friend

We are just listening to people

People know their issues better than I do.

On Fridays they have the BBQs from 2-4pm and then hot coco distrobution during their outreach in the evenings starting at 8pm

Building connections and inviting people back to the Saturday morning activities.

Ellis Room after hours. Put on movies, serve coffee, cookies and they have a tv and a projector but it’s hard to see the video when the lights are on inside, with their current projector

What are the felt needs in our neighborhood, and how do we meet them?

This is how Saturdays became a thing. They had feedback from the community suggesting this.

Want to add more evening activities- recovery nights here. Glad tidings, and Pastor Noah of Bay Church are interested in hosting groups

During the all-nights. The mountain of blanket donations from city-serve were very useful because people would come in, soaking wet. Doing this encouraged more folks to become regulars during the day.

Hosting neighbors in the evenings started in November 2023, during APEC, when The City of SF kicked everyone out of their tents and shared they would come back to do it every day. It started pouring rain that week. YWAM stayed open for 7 nights during that conference

Bearing one another’s burdens

Rescue Mission just texted Kent asking about recovery groups on Thursdays

Be proactive

We don’t clock into relationship

Show up for your neighbors

“The hot coffee is life changing at night when you are cold and wet” a recipient shared

People were showing a lot respect and loyalty to YWAM, and told all of the people around to clear the way, and behave, because YWAM was coming through with their hot coco

The neighbors honored us because they have felt honored and supported from WYAM