BETHESDA CARES INC
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Mission Statement
Bethesda Cares is a community outreach program. We help place people living unsheltered into permanent, supportive housing; ease life for those on the street; and keep low-income tenants from eviction.
About This Cause
Founded in 1988, Bethesda Cares is a community outreach program for people living unsheltered, and for people in homes, at severe risk of losing them. Don’t be fooled by our name: we work throughout Montgomery County! We seek to place people in permanent, supportive housing; to ease life on the street during that process; and to prevent low-income tenants in crisis from eviction and possible homelessness: For some of our clients, homelessness is a difficult but transitory period that they ultimately resolve on their own, by landing needed work, or finding friends or family to help them through. Other clients, though, have been on the street for years. Some feel deeply detached from—abandoned by--society. These clients may resist help, despite sorely needing it. With them, we use a very long process of slowly, methodically building trust, then working with partners to ultimately place these clients into homes. Regardless of whether their homelessness is temporary or chronic, our clients need food, a mailing address, psychiatric help, or maybe just a place have a cup of coffee, where they know they will not be told to “move along.” We offer a daily meal program; a Drop-In Center; a Clothing Closet; and a shower program. Our psychiatrist offers group and individual counseling, as well as prescription assistance. Take a look at last year: • With our many fabulous volunteers, we served 15,638 hot meals to the hungry (yes, 15,638!); • Our Clothing Closet provided clothing for 199 people; • Our Drop-In Center let 117 people to speak directly with a psychiatrist for mental health issues or prescription assistance; • We offered a warm, comfortable space in which hundreds of individuals came to sit, have a snack and share a smile, 8,427 times. Still other Bethesda Cares clients are in homes, but face financial crises, teetering on the brink of losing their homes. Maybe a wager-earner lost a job, and that family cannot pay both their utilities and rent. Rather than choosing between heat and rent, or food and rent, they can turn to us for short-term financial assistance. That safety net can mean the difference between staying housed, or being evicted and living on the street. In 2013, we helped 1,268 people avoid eviction or utility shut-off; more than half were children.