Aris Foundation

Tonight was a very special evening …. Tonight we celebrated a dear young man, Sean Bickings, who passed away four years ago. Sean’s mother has been a supporter of our outreach for years and hosted the amazing dinner tonight! Thank you Turee for your love and support throughout the years! 🥰

Today we celebrate our 10 year anniversary as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization!!!

That is 520 Tuesdays! So proud to say we’ve never missed a Tuesday…. Not through COVID, horrible weather (both hot and cold), battles with government administrations, losing our locations, permit discussions…… not one. Our supporters and volunteers kept coming back and we always found a way. So on this very special day, I say THANK YOU!!!

And a special thank you to Josh who reminded me of the date! 🤣

Sometimes we all just need a popsicle …..

Tonight was not an easy night. It was hot and we had 177 people, many of whom were in line for well over an hour waiting for services. We’ve had some issues with people cutting in line and tonight that came to a head. One individual in line was angry and made it known to all - yelling and causing a commotion.

A few minutes in, volunteer Nick approached. He stood there just listening to our gentleman vent. He turned to me and quietly said, “Can you go grab me a popsicle?” And that’s exactly what I did.

Nick gave him the popsicle and within a minute, he was peaceful. He didn’t need anyone to match his anger. He didn’t need anyone to es**rt him away. He needed someone to listen. He needed someone to care. He just needed a popsicle.

Sometimes that’s all we need …….

I wanted to share a success story today!

Six weeks ago a gentleman showed up at our Tuesday night event. He used to be a regular, but we hadn’t seen him in a few years. He is 71 years old and going blind and back on the streets again.

The story is not being shared to tell you how wonderful our team is (although they are), it’s being shared to explain the difficulties of case management.

I get the question all the “time “why can’t people just get into programs if they want to get off the streets?” The answer is pretty simple. There are not enough resources, too many people in need and not enough case managers.

Here is what has happened to our friend over the last six weeks. We met as a team to figure out immediate needs. We put him into a weekly motel room. Daily phone calls to various programs around the valley resulted in the understanding that every program was full. There are more people who need these programs than there are beds.

This is an unusual case because of his age and his disability. But he hadn’t been declared legally blind yet. One of our team members spent countless hours trying to search for his previous medical records. She ended up getting him an appointment at an ophthalmologist to have him declared legally blind. That would enable his Social Security to rise from $700 a month to $1100 a month and would give us more options to get him into elderly housing.

One of our team members scheduled appointments with Social Security to make that increase happen.

One of our team members brought him to the DMV to get a replacement ID because he no longer had his. We had to order a new Social Security card and birth certificate, which took weeks.

One of our team members went to visit him almost daily to make sure he had food and also brought him clothing. She brought him to Goodwill to purchase some things that he needed and worked with the hotel staff to ensure he had a room with a microwave and a working TV. She picked him up every Tuesday to bring him to our event so he had some social interaction and she ended up being his lifeline.

One of our team members got him a phone and added him onto our phone plan (which we will continue paying so he has access to the outside world).

Just yesterday, we finally found an organization that was willing to help. Adult protective services came to visit and determined he qualified for care through them. They extended his motel stay for a week and are searching find the right program to meet his needs. We were told he is now first on the list!

It took six of us six weeks to make sure that this wonderful man was cared for. Can you imagine the workload when you have 30 cases on your desk?

Today we celebrate! And while our immediate work is done, we will continue to follow his case to make sure that he is cared for and loved.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. And thank you for supporting the work that we do!

It was brutally hot tonight and felt even more humid than the last few weeks. We are all hoping we’ll turn a corner next week…..

Citywide provided an amazing dinner! 400 burritos with Mac-n-cheese, green beans, snacks and soda (a huge treat!) But the best part about the meal was the warm welcome they gave to every one of our guests! The volunteer at the front of the line thanked each and every person for coming……. 🥰 I’m proud to say the owner of Citywide is one of our dedicated Boardmembers and we appreciate everything he and his team do!!!

Tonight, I had the pleasure of introducing a mom and two kids to what we do on Tuesday nights - first time volunteers. When I first give a tour to young people, you can see a little bit of anxiety in their eyes - working with the homeless is not something that’s expected to feel comfortable for anyone the first time. But I love coming back to check on them when they’re halfway through their experience - seeing them jump into the tasks. These kids blossomed - serving snow cones and cotton candy, meeting new people, fully encompassing their time with us. And way to go mom for bringing them out to open their eyes to something they might never have experienced otherwise.

Such a great night! Thank you to the Islamic Community Center for hosting dinner for 155 of our friends! Did you know they they host every month?!

So many groups joined us tonight to spread joy …..

ASU Mustard Seed Project
Phoenix Dignity Project
First Baptist Church
AZ National Charity League
Unity Salsa
Democratic Socialists of America
NOPAL

And so many individual volunteers ….. Thank you for the support, the donations and all the love you share with us!

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot! When will it end?!

So grateful to Assumption Greek Orthodox Church for providing an amazing dinner for 155 of our guests! Everyone loved it!

And tonight we had three people choose to go to detox - thank you to Ben for facilitating!

We also had four people use our new Bicking’s Program to see if they had any outstanding warrants. There are many times where people don’t know (trespassing, failure to appear). This program provides them information to be able to accept services. So grateful to Alicia for providing this new service!

We scheduled many eyeglass appointments tonight - the need is great!

Tonight was HOT and HUMID! A great evening with so many people served.

Thank you to Faithland Recovery for hosting a fantastic dinner! Pasta for everyone and it smelled SO GOOD!!!

Very grateful tonight for the Tempe Fire Department for taking care of a young lady who had a seizure waiting for the bus. They were so kind to her. She was taken to the hospital where she can get her seizure meds regulated. (She hasn’t taken them for a month because she was out.)