Community Outreach Worker Program

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Community Outreach Workers aim to support a welcoming and inclusive downtown community by engaging people with a kind attitude, often needed to de-escalate potential conflicts.

The Outreach Workers travel throughout the downtown corridor – which extends from Meadow Drive to Aurora Street, and from Court Street to Green Street, and includes support to the Tompkins County Public Library and Dewitt Park – keeping an eye open for people who are exhibiting signs of distress.

For example, during January 2022: Community Outreach Workers — there are two individuals — conducted 85 total client encounters in the downtown area. A client encounter can range from anything as simple as meeting with a person and checking in with them, to completing intensive services like accompanying the person to a crucial housing or health care appointment and helping them navigate transportation, paperwork, food and basic needs.

The # of clients served in January 2022 was 34 individuals. So, COW worked with 34 unique individuals on issues related to housing, mental health, substance use, financial aide, etc., and we worked with the same individuals more than once (to create 85 service encounters). In January 2022, Outreach Workers enrolled 10 new clients into the program; and 3 community concern calls were successfully de-escalated as indicated in the chart. An important point of clarification: just because our service contacts might be lower doesn't necessarily mean there's less service being conducted: it could mean that the services COW provides to an individual are more in-depth, thorough, timely encounters where we are encountering multiple services needs at once.

The Downtown Ithaca Pay It Forward program is a community outreach campaign that allows the public to make a donation that will assist those in need with purchasing a meal or sundries from participating businesses. All of the money collected for this program will be used to purchase downtown gift cards that those in need can use to buy food and basic necessities items from downtown businesses.

The program is managed by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA). Keep downtown Ithaca thriving and beautiful. Your donation will help the DIA continue programming meant to keep downtown vibrant and attractive for visitors, tourists, and residents.