There was no doubt Friday morning which of the offerings at Project Homeless Connect client Denise Espirit wanted first. "Breakfast," she told her personal escort, Verlyn Thomas.
The two headed to the UVI Sports and Fitness Center, where the project has been held three of its four years, to a brightly striped yellow and white tent where Espirit, a slender 53-year-old, tucked away a breakfast fit for someone twice her size.
She happily answered questions, while ingesting pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, cornmeal pap, a johnny cake and a ham sandwich. Meantime, Thomas filled out the forms on background information with the client’s permission.
Thomas is an old hand at this. "This is my fourth year," she said. "I work for a Golden Eagle, an EDC company. We have four volunteers this year."
Espirit moved to St. Thomas to be with her mother, who passed away some 20 years ago. "Use my name, it’s all right with me," she said. "I’m from New Jersey."
After breakfast, Espirit took advantage of the project’s services, starting with obtaining an ID card. She said she had no identification at all. One of the busiest tables in the gym was the ID service, offered by the Department of Human Services, which along with United Way of St. Thomas-St. John sponsors the annual project.
The cavernous gym was alive with energy, as folks eagerly took advantage of the community’s offerings, and the calypso strains of Mighty Sparrow, played by DJ Dixie, spurred things along. It is a community effort, staffed by local volunteers.
The program offers the V.I. homeless population a variety of services and information along with volunteer escorts to help them wend their way through the thicket of information available.One of the most important offerings of the project, said Human Services Commissioner Chris Finch, is the ID cards.
"The cards make you feel connected with society," he said. "They give people something they can use if, for instance, they have to travel off-island for medical purposes. For people with missing documents, it’s a re-attachment to society, a boon for self-esteem."
Finch said, "We didn’t think of it ourselves. It’s something we learned. Before we started the project four years ago, three of us went to the States, to Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte (North Carolina), to learn how to do this.
"We went to one in a gym," he said, "though not as nice as ours, and another in a park. We got invaluable information (that) we couldn’t have functioned without."
Finch said the "big push" this year is a thorough follow-up process. "At the end of the day," he said, "it’s not the numbers of people who come through, it’s those who make use of the services.
We have spent lots of time with the Department of Health organizing medical assistance to arrange follow-up appointments."
Dr. Bert Petersen agreed. Noted oncologist Petersen, director of the east Surgery Clinic at St. Barnabas Hospital, took time from his New York practice to manage the exit interviews. "Screenings aren’t effective without a follow-up," he said. "The focus is on following up the screenings. We are getting people’s contacts to call them and make certain they appear for appointments.
"Ultimately, what I want is for people to have a medical ‘home,’" Petersen said, "which would be the Department of Health, or a hospital clinic, instead of the emergency room."
Petersen did exit interviews from clients taking advantage of this year’s new prostate screening, pap smears and breast screening appointments, provided by the Schneider Regional Medical Center,
Julian Jackson, of the Frenchtown Evangelistic Assembly, but perhaps better known as the territory’s premier boxing champion, talked about who is in control.
"God is speaking to, helping us," he said. "We are offering spiritual counseling to everyone, volunteers as well as the homeless."
Jackson said he knows well of what he speaks. "I’m here because I was headed in the path of destruction when God found me and turned me around."
On a less spiritual level, Celsa of Celsa’s House of Beauty, her daughter Suyapa Berry, and Theresa Morey of Just Cuts, gave a boost to physical appearance with men and women. The three were cheerful, determined to help all. However, they did have to turn down Espirit, who wanted her eyebrows shaped. "Just cuts today," said Morey.
The program’s numbers have grown each year since its inception, which was led by United Way Executive Director Cherise Creque Quain with more than 140 clients being helped on St. Thomas and about 100 on St. Croix.
This year saw about 150 clients, said United Way project committee chairman Kim Mullholand, "an amazing number, and the follow-up arrangements went very well."
Gov. John deJongh Jr. praised the project and the volunteers in a noon visit. "It is a well-known adage: A society can be best judged by how it treats its most unfortunate citizens.
"I never doubt that we live in a generous and caring community, but on days like today, when I look around honestly and objectively and apply that test to the Virgin Islands, I am proud to recognize that our society can be judged well."
Project Homeless Connect will move to the Agriculture Fairgrounds on St. Croix Oct 22.
