ROC’N Roller Coaster

“I haven’t ever been on outreach; what should I expect? What does a typical day look like? How was your day?”

All questions that are complicated to answer or describe. One way to portray what the days are typically like is to say they are like riding a roller coaster.

One minute you’re rescuing a turtle from its imminent death (the second of the week 😎🐢). You then climb down off to the side of the railroad tracks, feeling happy and accomplished, as you come into the encampment tucked into the woods. You and your outreach partner can’t get all the way to where the large cabin tent within the encampment is located because a tangled mess of fallen trees has created a literal jungle gym of an obstacle course between you and where the tent is. As you duck, hurdle, crawl, and climb to reach the tent, adrenaline and emotions of fear, worry, and slight panic kick in as you start to see that the now smashed tent took a direct hit from the fallen trees. You then begin to lift large branches off the section where the opening to the tent is so that your partner can peer inside as far as they can. You then begin ripping with your bare hands other sections. You attempt to do the most thorough job of inspecting the site in the hopes of not finding the worst outcome. You and your partner even share the same thought that if the worst had happened, we would be smelling it by now. You both then take a moment in the humid, mosquito-filled woods to be still for a moment, collect yourselves, and talk to one another about the horrendous task we just dealt with. You share with them that you are taking comfort in noting that the encampment had appeared abandoned the past few visits and that the other outreach team felt the same way during their visit last week.

You make it back to the van and head a short distance over to another encampment. There is a couple there. They are excited and filled with joy at the potential of possibly being housed sometime next week after being unsheltered for a year. There are shared emotions of excitement and also feelings of inspiration as the wife explains how they went through school to obtain their associate's degree online, all the while surviving in the woods. Your outreach partner shares with them how they have been struggling with the decision of going back to school or not and doubting if they can do it. They now have no excuses as to why they can’t do it. The client then encourages them even more by saying, “You absolutely can do it, and you should!” They then share a meaningful hug.

You then leave there and drive to the location where the ShowerUp Chattanooga opportunity is happening at Abba's House. As soon as you exit the van, you are rushed with the urgent needs of all the clients gathered there. Most everyone’s supplies are needing replacement due to the recent onslaught of rain. Every single person asks for a bus pass, and you have none. You bear witness to disappointment approximately 12 times as you continue to have to say, “Sorry, I am all out of bus passes right now.” You continue to take care of what you can take care of for each person. Make sure you at least speak to each one and acknowledge that they are there and that you do see them.

You make your rounds of thanking the faithful volunteers who are present. You are told that there are homemade WHOOPIE PIES available for you to try. You immediately smile and laugh because, for some odd reason, you had been talking with the other ROC Stars earlier that morning. Somehow WHOOPIE PIES had come up! So yes, of course you try one, and they are so delicious you try two! You also end up walking away with a to-go plate of lasagna! Lunch for later is now taken care of!

Before leaving there, you talk to a couple that is living in their car with their three dogs. You speak to them about their possible interest in getting vet care for their dogs starting next month, once the ROC can start rolling out with a veterinarian once or twice a week. They express they are very interested. You also speak to the husband about how things are going with their cancer treatments and the potential for them to stay at Welcome Home of Chattanooga during the remainder of his time getting treatment.

As you are leaving there, you get a call from one of the newer employees at the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition asking if they could join on outreach next Monday. You arrange the details with them and put it on your calendar. Before hanging up, they ask, “So I have never been on outreach before. What should I expect?” You say, “Wear good shoes, prepare to get dirty, be ready to go with the flow of wherever the ride takes us, and expect for your life to be forever changed.” (Hence sparked the beginning of this post.)

You then roll on to check on the client sitting up the road. They’re angry about being lied to about a housing opportunity. They’re fed up with the other people experiencing homelessness in the same area as them and talk about how they slashed up their $60 tent last night. The client had locked the tent up, even though they didn’t have anything worthy of stealing in there. However, other people still cut the tent to pieces anyways. They ask you for extra water because they can no longer enter the nearby business to get water without the threat of being arrested.

You quickly head on to the last encampment you will be able to get to that day before your partner needs to be back to their office. You pack your backpacks with supply bags, even though it has been rumored for some time now that this encampment was decommissioned by police late last week. After hiking the steep hill, and you’re able to call out to see if anyone is there through labored breathing, you find that everyone is still there. They tell you that they are still there because they got word from the property owner that they do have permission to still be there. You explain to one of the clients there what a Universal Housing Assessment is and that they can have one of those done with them if they would like, but it is not likely to lead to a housing opportunity any time soon. They elect to wait to fill one out until another time.

You rush to the location of another encampment, but you don’t have the time to check and see if the clients are there, so you end up leaving the two supply bags and what’s left of a case of bottled water towards the entrance of the camp. You leave them the extra water because the lady there has expressed issues of domestic violence towards her in the past. Part of this abuse has included their partner restricting their access to water for 24 hours at a time.

You then head back towards your outreach partner's office without also getting a chance to go and visit with the elderly disabled lady living in her car. You have been worried about them since the last time you met with them two weeks ago.

When you get back to the ROC, you enjoy that homemade to-go plate of lasagna. The day eventually ends with the need for you to still document your outreach encounters, to map out the most efficient route for the vet care partnership starting June 3rd, and to make a list of identified abandoned encampments that would be good sites for the abandoned encampment clean-up initiative that the ROC is hoping to begin this summer through a deeper partnership with the CHATT Foundation. You still need to respond back to a person wanting to teach Tai Chi to those experiencing homelessness. There also is a need to set up a Zoom meeting with the two nursing professors from Southern Adventist University who are interested in looking at what it would look like to partner with the ROC.

The ROC’n Roller Coaster is a wildly unpredictable, never-ending ride, and for some of us that is a huge part of what keeps us coming back each day for more. Each day the ride looks, feels, and is different. The ups, the downs, the loops, the parts where you want to scream, cry, smile, or laugh, or the parts where you feel scared, nervous, fast, slow, abruptly stopped, sideways, upside down, like you’re holding on with all you’ve got, like your head is spinning, or like your stomach has dropped! It’s a lot! It’s intense! It’s still so worth it! Come buckle up and take a ride! If you do, you can expect your life to be forever changed!