07 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in charity, Christianity, Community, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, homelessness, Incarceration
Tags
Is it Possible…..?
To go back to simpler times?
To times like these?
I Believe it is….It is simply about your priorities and what you want and how you want to live.
Simpler is better.
We should all at least give it a try.
I believe you would be amazed at how much your lives would improve.
I believe you would be amazed at how much strife and homelessness could be prevented simply by simplifying our lives.
Lance Greene/Founder
12 Tuesday Jun 2012
Tags
Donate to Charities in other Communities, Felons, No Where to go, Philanthropy, Released from jail, Released from Jail and scared, those in need
6/12/2012
1) It is always good to help where ever you can. Not just in your own community, although please do. It is good to help in other communities and states also because the people who are in need that are not getting help in another state may very well be placed on a bus to come to your community. Literally. Help anywhere you can, any time you can monetarily. I realize you may not know how the money will be spent but leave that part up to God.
2) For Example: We help wherever we go, it could even be your community one day. Or, someone we are helping, it may prevent that person from having to come to your community. The more of the people in need that have to move around the country, the more complicated and entrenched they get in the streets.
*** 3) In many communities across the country, people are let out of jail at all hours of the night, including those who are classed as felons. Both Men AND Women of all adult ages. Many nonprofit organizations, including ours, help by picking these folks up and getting them to a safe location. The problem is we all need the funds to do it and keep our vehicles on the road. These in need individuals are being released from jail as i said at all hours of the night, every day. They are stressed, scared and simply “lost” most times without a place to go or anyone to go to and nothing to their name and many times lack the personal faculties to “direct their own step” if you will. They leave with very little if any money, the clothes on their back and no food. BTW, just because they are classed as a felon does not mean they killed someone or anything of the sort. Bottom line is…….they have served their time and are being let out to the streets. Orgs like us that help them need your help to continue it in order to keep our streets safe from unnecessary trouble and strife.
06 Wednesday Jun 2012
Tags
Clearwater Florida, Donations for gasoline, Minnesota, Mobile Crisis Outreach Van, St. Petersburg Florida, Texas, Thank You
6/6/2012
THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!
Straight Ahead Outreach received $25.00 today from Texas toward fuel in our Mobile Crisis Outreach Van. THANK YOU again Michael! Thats the 2nd time in a month! Thank you for your blessings! It may not seem a lot to you, i am not sure. But i can honestly tell you, it is a lot to us. To me. To those we help.
In addition we received today notice of a pending Donation towards fuel of $50.00 from Minnesota!! (Where i happen to be from) :-))! And this also happens to be from someone by the name of Mike! This person also helped us get our Mobile Crisis Outreach Van back on the road by donating $1000.00 at the end of April towards the repair of the vans transmission. Without Mike from Minnesota’s donation we would not be able to do what we have done in May and now June and even this week, today and tomorrow. He simply does not know the IMPACT he has made for our organization. I wish he did. THANK YOU AGAIN Mike!!
I know this may be difficult to understand or believe, but here goes…..
Whether it is $5.00, $25.00, $50.00, $1000.00 or more, when you have Zero Dollars…each and every dollar makes a huge impact for Straight Ahead Outreach.
For example, the $1000.00 we received in April to repair our vans transmission was life saving for our org and is enabling us to get to one of our Friends In Need tomorrow to pick him up from jail in Pinellas County, FL and bring him somewhere to stay, get him some clothes, let him see his baby daughter and help begin the steps to him Taking Back His Life and mending his family. It will involve a good amount of travel, time and energies as we do not know yet where he will be staying or able to stay. It is a very long story. ** We would not have been able to go to Court in Hillsborough County on May 30th all day for another Friend In Need we have known for approx 1.5 years and speak on his behalf and provide transportation to his girlfriend back home to St. Petersburg, FL at the end of the day. *** That also provided me/STA an additional 2 hours to talk to his girlfriend and provide some Hope to her . **** Her boyfriend was released the following day. ***** It also enabled STA to answer an Emergency Call at 10:00pm on a night in May which ended up involving 3 Pinellas County FL. Sheriff’s and 4 Pinellas Park FL Police Officers. It was an intense night. All turned out well. The van came in reallllllllll handy. Without our Outreach Van, we/STA would have had to turn down the call.
All that is priceless and awesome and soooooo appreciated i cannot begin to explain and all these words are not enough.
BUT BUT BUT! Without Gasoline, that repaired van goes nowhere. Used or brand new it would not matter. That makes your $25.00, the $50.00, the $10.00 or even the $5.00 just as important and impactful as they make it possible for us to have the fuel we need in the van for multitude of situations.
I hope our Donors understand this. We need every dollar as we are very small but also impactful just as you are. We use every dollar to help those in need.
It costs over $70.00 to fill our Outreach Van with gas. That can go in one long 17 or 24 hour day of travel around our area, easily. No, that does not happen every day. But it has in the past. In 2010 and the first part of 2011 and i feel it is on track to be a busy 2012.
If you are in the position to help us stay on the road will you help today?
Thank you ALL, Thank YOU Michael of Texas and Mike of Minnesota!! Without you, Straight Ahead Outreach would not be having a busy, impactful 2012. ****P.S. the Coin Jug had $55.00 in it. - With that and your donations Mike & Mike we are good for the rest of the week. God is in a good mood eh Mike W.??? :-))!
(PAYPAL SECURE)
Thank You!
Lance Greene/Founder
11 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted in Arrests, Foreign Wars, Incarceration, Nonprofit, Police, Prisons and War, Protests, Veterans, Wars & Enemies
11 Thursday Aug 2011
Tags
501c3, Arrested, Chevrolet, Clearwater FL, donate, friends in need, jail, Mobile Crisis, poor decision, Released from jail, Social Decay, St Petersburg FL, Straight Ahead Outreach, Streets, Suicidal, Taking Back Your life, Tampa FL, Wandering
8/11/2011
I rant, whine and complain on here how we help keep your streets safe, where ever we operate. Be it Knoxville, TN, or the Tampa Bay Florida area of St. Petersburg/Clearwater FL areas.
Do you understand what that means? Do you care? Well let me share, so you do care.
Today, 8/11/11 at 2:13am – I received a call from one of our Friends In Need who was released from the Hillsborough Florida County Jail at about 1:00am. It is across the Bay from us. In this case, the person was arrested in one county and brought across the bay over 25 miles one way to another county.
Everywhere we have done our work, we will get calls from our Friends In Need after they have been released from jail in the middle of the night. Usually around 1:00am – 3:00am. Do i agree with this practice? Absolutely not. Can you figure out why? Do you know why they call us?
First, is this the Police’s fault? No. Is it the Courts fault? No. Is it the jails fault? No. Of course it is the Friend In Needs fault as they should not have placed themselves in the position to get arrested in the first place and that is what we teach and coach them on. It takes time. But we are here to do it.
However, i do not support the practice of letting out arrested individuals to the streets in the middle of the night.
1) The individual is scared. Most of them are a target for “trouble”. They do not want to get picked up again for making another poor decision without anyone to coach them through to prevent that poor decision. Even if they try to stay away from trouble at that time in the night, no matter what happens they are going to look like the bad guy.
2) They dont want to be wandering as that is when the trouble finds them and if they do not participate, then a fight can ensue.
3) They simply want to get home and off the street. In this case the person was released into Tampa FL, over 25 miles from his home in St. Petersburg FL. Why make it all that more complicated and difficult? We are just asking for trouble. We are brewing it in fact. Period. We are more than Happy to pick them up and get them home safely if our equipment is in proper running order. This is our attempt and participation in Fighting, Preventing, Stopping Social Decay.
4) Normally, we would go pick up the Friend In Need. However, in this case we would have to go on the highway which involves 70 mph speeds here due to the traffic flow. Our Mobile Crisis van right now cannot get out of 3rd gear so we are unable to safely reach proper highway speeds. So, we were not able to go pick up this particular Friend In Need. He ended up spending his last monies taking buses. He was on the streets from 1:00am – 8:00am when he finally got home. Seven…… 7 hours.
5) This individual who does have a past record, but is “trying” key word, “trying” to the best of his capacity to change his life. Many do NOT try. He has done pretty well, going to school for Construction, getting his own apartment, getting his own part-time job and more. We have known him for approx 8 months. He has a good heart. But he simply needs to learn more.
6) We view this as our job. Not the Police’s job to escort them home and coach them, spend time with them. They have many other Civil needs to tend to. Our Responsibility to our 501c3 Certification was to help relieve the Municipal Police, Ambulance and Medical Facilities of “nuisance” type issues. These types of issues being released to the streets in the middle of the night can become very quickly a “nuisance issue”. Yours/Our local Police Departments have more than enough to deal with. We need your help to continue this work. This work is extremely valuable to everyone. Including you.
So, Did You Know, that in your area too most likely there are individuals being released to the street at all hours of the night? Did you know? They have Court 24 hours, right there in jail. Did You Know?
They are mostly scared and hyper at that time. They just want to get out of sight. Typically they are not out to do any harm to anyone. BUT, why should we take that risk. Why should we set them up to fail? Why? I personally really am not looking for an answer from you. I am simply wanting YOU to think.
We have a client who has been arrested 63 times for this kind of thing. 63 times! Trust me. This is a lot of work. Work which you as the General Public simply do not make yourself aware of or simply do not understand. Orgs like us do some intense work. Work no one ever sees or hears about. Sad. We keep YOUR streets safe.
Go ahead, do a Google search of Mobile Crisis units in the USA. You will not find one like us for the most part. We are one of the only ones of our type that provides the services such as described here for example. Most Mobile crisis Units are mainly for the most part for someone suicidal. They will not go out to just pick someone up because they are in a panic after being released from jail. We, STA does and will, as long as we have a working vehicle, 24/7, 365 days per year. Any time of day or night in other words.
Straight Ahead Outreach Inc. Needs YOUR support to help us replace our Mobile Crisis van. Please help today! We help keep YOUR Streets Safe!
We are needing to raise a minimum of $11,000.00 to replace our 1995 Chevrolet Van which has almost 240,000 miles on it and the transmission is not shifting out of 3rd gear along with other issues.
Thank you,
Lance Greene/Founder
If Not You, Then Who?
