What's a Hub

HelpKeepWarm.org

In Memory of Mark J. South (1954-2006)


	Florida has the 3rd largest homeless population in the nation...just 2,000 less than New York state. (NEAH, Homelessness Counts report)

What's a Hub

Distribute Sleeping Bags In Your City.
Become a Hub.

What's a Hub?
A Hub is simply a legitimate location that is qualified to receive a shipment of sleeping bags and has the capabilities to distribute the bags to the homeless during a specified time frame.

How do I become a qualified Hub?
A qualified Hub must complete a Hub form. The form will ask the following questions:

How long has your facility been open to the homeless?
Describe your facility - church, shelter, other type of organization, etc.
How many volunteers work at or with your organization?
How many homeless people do you have access to on a weekly basis?
Where is your facility located?
If your outreach program is on wheels, what areas of your city do you cover and how often?
Provide 3 business and 3 personal references.
Provide a contact responsible for coordinating the sleeping bag distribution with a phone number and 1 personal reference.
How many sleeping bags can you distribute to the homeless in one weekend?

I want to complete a Hub Form now.
Your form will be reviewed by a HelpKeepWarm.org volunteer, references will be contacted, and you will receive a call within 2 weeks of your form submission date.

More Hub facts.
Please capture your distribution day through pictures, videos, and/or stories and send them to us via email. We will share your experiences through the HelpKeepWarm.org website.

Sharing your distribution day will give our supporters a way to keep in touch with how their gifts impact all our efforts to help the homeless stay warm. It will also be a formal way for HelpKeepWarm.org to acknowledge and give thanks to volunteers all across the country.

From time to time a HelpKeepWarm.org representative will visit distribution sites to help prevent an "Oprah school incident" from happening. One bad seed can destroy the wonderful good of so many.

With our diligent Hub screening process and careful monitoring of the bags, we hope to keep every bag on a honest, giving path.

This family moved to Florida
to help keep their son alive.

Several years ago I was visiting someone I love very much at the psychiatric unit of a hospital in Tampa, FL. While waiting to get in, I struck up a conversation with a mother waiting to see her son. She looked weary around the eyes and her heart seemed heavy.

I greeted her with a smile and a listening ear. She told me her son had been in
psychiatric care for 3 weeks. The police found him in a mall wandering around. At the time, he didn't know where he was or where he lived. He suffers from schizophrenia.

She went on to tell me she and her husband had recently moved to Tampa because of their son's illness. They previously lived in Ohio and were afraid if their son had an episode in the winter and wandered off, he would freeze to death. See mental illness and homelessness.

After hearing this story, I now think of Florida as the survival state instead of the "sunshine state."

Ricki South

...researchers estimate about 5 to 7.7 percent of youth experience homelessness each year? Read more...
(Source: NAEH)