Help us Help the Homeless

We worked with a young man at a Salvation Army facility who spoke perfect English, but was being addressed as “Russia,” having moved here from Russia. What began as a simple inquiry about obtaining his Caresource card, ended in a complicated but much-needed assist. This 30-year-old man had been abruptly discharged from a nursing home facility for  a rule violation, after nine months care from a life-threatening motorcycle accident. He required follow up care, but more importantly,  post surgery professional pain management in order to avoid further addiction issues. We were able to connect him with an immediate appointment and transportation for this very important care, and thanked with sincere hugs.


When you are homeless and in a wheel chair it is difficult to get transportation to doctor appointments.  Dannie is a veteran that we met at the men's shelter, who was extremely discouraged. He schedules many doctor appointments monthly and has limited transportation to these appointments. He qualifies for 15 round trips yearly through Medicaid.  Unfortunately, when we met Dannie he had used up all but one of his trips, and had three scheduled doctor appointments, one for his pacemaker, and two additional therapy appointments for his knee replacement. We explained his dire need to his Caresource case manager, who was able to qualify him for an additional nine round trip transportations this year.  We also scheduled an additional doctor and dentist appointment for Dannie. We helped him complete a Cuyahoga County Paratransit application as a backup for his doctor appointments. Dannie wasn't smiling when we first meant him, but by the time he left he was all smiles and extremely grateful for our help!

A woman stopped by our table at Bishop Cosgrove who had lost her health coverage and generally fallen on hard times, now living at the women’s homeless shelter. We were able to get her health coverage as well as much-needed medical appointments. She checked in a few weeks later to let us know that she had good results with her appointments and was turning her life around. We developed a friendship with her and were able to touch base weekly, finding out that she now has a place of her own and a part-time job at Bishop Cosgrove... and best of all, cheerfully helping others at this same site!
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We work with Salvation Army prison release program on a weekly basis. On one particular visit, we met a woman desperate to figure out if she was still covered under Medicaid, as she was in need of a mental health assessment.  After speaking with the manager at Jobs and Family Services, we were able to determine that she had Medicaid coverage for herself and her daughter.  She was able to obtain her much needed psychiatric medication and have her daughter seen by a pediatrician…two people helped in this family!
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We met with a young lady, named Paris at Bishop Cosgrove Center in July who had lost her Medicaid coverage. She desperately needed glasses and was without routine medical care for some time. We helped her obtain Medicaid, find a medical home and addressed her vision needs. Coincidentally, she reappeared at a women's homeless shelter in September – now seeking help with a pregnancy. Early intervention with medical care undoubtedly played a big role in helping to move her forward with much-needed prenatal care and ensure a healthy pregnancy. Our impact on helping this young lady will clearly benefit this new life!  #helpushelpthehomless