Tenderloin Walk 01/04/24

Outreach walk

YWAM Street Outreach Notes

This is our 3rd Walk with the help of Youth With a Mission

Attendance

Numbers were a little lower with this being a holiday/travel week for most.

1 Coordinator

6 volunteers

1 unhoused advisor

Questions

Is it possible to create a 3-D rendered beanie hat?

No, but Kent can do a new art piece each walk and continue adding pins to it.

Tech Access

A volunteer is wondering if he could utilize these walks to collect data on unhoused needs.

Isaac shared that so long as you don't make "answering the question" a pre-requisit for getting cocoa, socks, etc. Start by asking "Is it alright if I ask you a question for a project I am working on?" Also, elaborate if they would like to know more.

We found that people answered in two ways:

Is it easy for you to access it?

1. I could if I really needed to.

2. I have a phone, it’s easy.

Debrief

Starting off with words of wisdom. "The TL is an Abyss, when you stare into it, you see yourself." -Outreach Captain Isaac, who also shared this was not a waste of time because "there is no such thing as wasted love."

Report backs

1st Team: We have seen the most aggressive person and the most sublime. Gave out a lot of flyers at least 1 per group
2nd Group: Pure angels only. Gave out half of their flyers
Isaac advises us to hold onto that feeling, because you will run into aggressive people later on
Our brains, due to biology, Fundamental Attribution Error, will put people into categories
We Organize, categorize and attribute positive and negative values to a population
Why do I do this? Series of serendipitous moments that remind us why we do this
I am not the best version of myself if I am not with my neighbors
Saw a community member and reconnected with him. Saw two other regulars from YWAM
Steve Bingquist is the Director of Ministry at YWAM
We <3 SF community is welcomes because we have such creative ideas
CS Lewis’ definition of friendship: “Oh, you too.”
Ideas for future walks
Surveys to gather data, show them the live poll test
Have the “question of the day” for outreach events
YWAM has done this before: Chalkboard that has a word or question on it where people can engage and respond
Questions have an impact on the person receiving them, it influences them.
Helps to direct their attention.
Validation- their opinion matters
Actionable data
Think of question, send to staff and go from there.
Take aways
Split up the flyers to more people vs having only one person passing out the stack of flyers

Be calm, cool, collected, walk away if needed and all will be good

De-escalation

A woman became activated when the thought that one of our Captain was refusing to give her hot cocoa
It was a misunderstanding and when he offered to give her cocoa, she ran out into the street, yelled profanities at him and exposed herself
The group distanced themselves from her as our Captain calmly but firmly shared that she was behaving inappropriately and that he can't be around her if he is yelling slurs at him
Sometimes we think it is kind or the best approach to ignore someone's bad behavior
Our Captain shared that is it actually incredibly dignifying to leverage consequences of a person's behavior in front of them
He started off by giving her the benefit of the doubt, but always county up to 3 strikes total
He also confirmed that we shouldn't ignore or never become offended by someone's behavior
It’s ok to be offended by offensive behavior
You have a right to be offended, but don’t let this affect the decisions you make
Set these boundaries and stick to them so more time can be focused on people who are in a place to receive help
Redirect unfavorable behavior if the situation calls for it