Thank you for making our Second Annual Community Picnic (Think Gather Feed) in Balboa Park a huge success!  Because of all the support of our amazing volunteers, supporters, performers, speakers, and co-sponsors, we fed 400 people at the picnic and got great input on the needs of folks with inadequate housing in San Diego.  

To celebrate our fabulous volunteers and supporters, we invite you all to a VIP reception on Thursday, November 20th at 6 pm, at the law firm of Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, 655 W. Broadway, Suite 1900, in downtown San Diego where we will provide drinks and food.  At 7 pm, we will launch our Winter Survival Pack and Baby Bag project, assembling the packs and bags to help keep folks warm on the streets of San Diego this winter.

If you can’t make it to this assembly, look out for our full schedule for this winter’s homeless outreach project which we will be circulating soon.

 

Would you be willing to put a bin up at work for donations?  We’re looking for sleeping bags, blankets, backpacks, tote bags, warm clothing, shoes, coats, beanies, gloves, and non-perishable foods. Also we’d appreciate new onesies, undies, diapers, and baby wipes.  Click here for a flyer you can post nearby the bin and/or circulate to your colleagues, friends and families. 

 

Hope to see you this winter!!

Join us for a community picnic on Sunday, October 12, 2008, from Noon to 4 p.m. in Balboa Park (6th Ave north of Laurel Street).  This year’s theme is “Local Voices for Community Solutions” to poverty and homelessness.

 

At the picnic, we’re gathering our members, families and friends to break bread with our homeless neighbors; hear great speakers like long-time homeless advocate Congressman Bob Filner, street guru “Waterman” David Ross, and Shakti Rising’s Shannon Thompson; enjoy performances by local artists including our own Corina Rose, Terry Matsuoka, the Super Sonic Samba School, and DJ Quist; and participate in family games.  The League of Women Voters will be registering voters for the upcoming elections to get out the “street vote” and we will hold small group “story circles” about the issues particularly affecting the poor and homeless in our community.

 

Your $10 minimum donation will provide BBQ lunch for you and a person in need.  Every penny raised will go directly toward keeping folks warm on San Diego’s streets this winter.  We’re raising money for our winter survival backpacks, which will be loaded (as they have the past 2 winters) with sleeping bags or fleece blankets, knit caps, gloves, socks, ponchos, toiletries, water, non-perishable foods, and laminated resource and phone cards to put people on the streets in contact with people who can help them get back on their feet.  This year, we are adding GTT baby bags — homemade bags with baby wipes, pacifiers, infant bibs, infant socks, receiving blanket, wash cloths, baby bottles, cream or ointment, baby wash/shampoo and onesies for expectant or new mothers.

 

Co-sponsoring organizations include Foundation for Change, Shakti Rising, Lotus Outreach, The Resolved Church, the League of Women Voters, Progressive San Diego, and the Isaiah Project.  We’re looking for volunteers to help get the word out on the street and lend a helping hand on the day of, whether it’s flipping burgers (veggy too!), registering voters, or helping to clean up afterwards.  Working together, we can create community-based solutions to poverty and homelessness!

 

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE TO THE GTT COMMUNITY PICNIC! 

 

Our monthly meeting is next Thurs., Sept. 18th at 7 pm at Audra’s home, 3450 2nd Ave, Unit 25, San Diego 92103 (in Hillcrest/Banker’s Hill at corner of 2nd and Upas).  We’ll be discussing issues facing low-income seniors in San Diego, and Melinda Bell (volunteer coordinator) from Jewish Family Service will speak about the challenges for elderly as they struggle to make ends meet.  With loved ones gone or living across the country, they are often forgotten by the community they live in.  Melinda will discuss some programs that the JFS has to serve San Diego seniors, and we will discuss/brainstorm ways that GTT can help out in our community.  Bring food or drink to share, or even just your thoughts and ideas!

Please rsvp by emailing us at girlsthinktank@gmail.com if you’re planning to attend so we can plan accordingly.  If you need directions, call Audra at 619.793.4668.

Our monthly meeting is next Thurs., Sept. 18th at 7 pm at Audra’s home, 3450 2nd Ave, Unit 25, San Diego 92103 (in Hillcrest/Banker’s Hill at corner of 2nd and Upas).  We’ll be discussing issues facing low-income seniors in San Diego, and Melinda Bell (volunteer coordinator) from Jewish Family Service will speak about the challenges for elderly as they struggle to make ends meet.  With loved ones gone or living across the country, they are often forgotten by the community they live in.  Melinda will discuss some programs that the JFS has to serve San Diego seniors, and we will discuss/brainstorm ways that GTT can help out in our community.  Bring food or drink to share, or even just your thoughts and ideas!

Please rsvp by emailing us at girlsthinktank@gmail.com if you’re planning to attend so we can plan accordingly.  If you need directions, call Audra at 619.793.4668.

It’s almost that time of the year again!  We had a great success at our first annual community picnic and can’t wait for our second, which will take place on Sunday, October 12th in Balboa Park from noon to 4 p.m.  Please come help us plan our fall community picnic to benefit GTT’s homelessness outreach project on Wed., September 3rd, at 6:30 p.m., at Farzeen’s place, 1465 C Street, Unit 3418, San Diego, 92101.  Bring food or drink to share, and we will brainstorm how to repeat and even improve upon the success of last year’s community picnic!  Also, if your organization would like to participate as a co-sponsor or supporter of this inspiring event, please contact us at girlsthinktank@gmail.com. 

David Ross, the waterman, is working to bring in port-o-johns on 16th and Island near God’s Extended Hand.  We want to help him also in his efforts to provide water fountains to downtown’s homeless community.  Let us know if you have any ideas or contacts to make this happen.  David also asks for shopping carts to provide community hauling vehicles downtown — these can be used by anyone and will be painted and marked as donated for this purpose.  Blog your comments and suggestions! 

Also click here to see David Ross Proposal for San Diego Homeless Solutions, which asks City Council to approve a budget for downtown temporary water fountains and port-o-johns.

In the winter of 2007, GTT passed out some 350 Winter Survival Backpacks to displaced folks, complete with a quality sleeping bag or blanket, beanie hat, gloves, socks, laminated resource card with numbers for different social services, hygiene products, hand-knitted scarves, water, flashlight, and non-perishable food items. We met hundreds of people on the streets of San Diego who have slipped through the cracks or fallen below that thin line separating the working poor who have housing and those without. We met elderly women in wheelchairs, disabled veterans, teenagers, pregnant women, families, and small children, all of whom we greeted with some warm gear and warm hearts.

Some of our work was documented by Channel 10 News reporter Juliette Vara in a news spot that aired in late November 2007. Click here to see the Channel 10 news spot.

Yvette de la Garza from the San Diego Union-Tribune and SignOnSanDiego.com chronicled our distribution work at the Neil Good Day Center. Check out the San Diego Union-Tribune’s video here.