Our Very Own Charlie’s Angels!
Rather than fighting crime, this team of Charlie’s Angels helps people who are experiencing homelessness in Santa Clara County!
Being unhoused is deeply traumatic. Imagine losing your job, family support and your home – it’s overwhelming, to say the least.
On top of that, you now face the daily struggle for survival—finding food, restrooms, shelter, and safety. There’s a lack of control—powerlessness—in living at the mercy of unstable environments, confusing social services, and often unsympathetic people and policies.
When volunteers at The United Effort Organization saw another opportunity to help, they did what they do every time—listen. Listening to current and former clients provides tremendous insight. Who better to help others than those who’ve had the lived experience of being unhoused?
Over the last six months of 2024, six of our clients worked under contract with The United Effort Organization as Peer Support Specialists funded by a grant we received through Destination: Home SV, a supporting organization of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
For many of them, this was the first opportunity in a long time to have a good paying job. For The United Effort Organization, it was our first ability to hire! Many clients expressed an eagerness to join, and after an extensive selection process, a leader and five others were onboarded. Understanding that this was a short-term pilot project, they began training, including learning and improving skills in communications, client interaction, teamwork, problem-solving, computer and mobile apps.
Starting with basic knowledge about the MyConnectSV portal, the team practiced how to effectively communicate the value of the mobile app to their peers. Contributing lots of ingenuity, they successfully navigated the intricate nuances and complexities associated with registering people on the portal. Given the vast variety of living situations and personal circumstances of living unhoused, this was no small feat!
The team met with unhoused individuals and families across Santa Clara County, registering them for the MyConnectSV portal, which provides a way for them to communicate with case managers to get housing status updates, location-based information about available resources, and more. The portal went live in late 2023, but had not yet become widely used, and the County wanted help with growing the user base.
What happened next? They absolutely crushed their goals for the 6 month period, more than doubling both the number of client contacts and the number of signups that were required by the contract!
Team leader Charlie shared the excitement from one gentleman who got so excited when he learned that MyConnectSV existed, saying “It feels good to get a little more control! Now I can update my contact information myself, and more easily get in touch with my case manager and potential services!”
When The United Effort was asked to take on the project, the team was tasked to create 200 MyConnectSV user accounts in 6 months' time. At the end of the pilot period, our team far exceeded program expectations by registering over 400 users!
More important than the numbers and even the work experience has been the friendship and camaraderie that has been created through collaboration with one another and at weekly team meetings. In fact, they’ve given themselves a name inspired by their team leader—Charlie’s Angels! Through their own initiative, they designed and printed t-shirts to celebrate their experience.
With such resounding success, Destination: Home SV has now asked The United Effort Organization to continue the project for another 18 months. That means job placements for an expanded team of Peer Support Specialists so that more unhoused people can take advantage of the MyConnectSV platform.
We’re so proud of each member of the Charlie’s Angels MyConnectSV team and grateful for the outstanding work they’ve accomplished!
We look forward to “Charlie’s Angels 2”, the sequel!