The CARE Complex facility is located on Foremaster Lane within the Corridor of Hope. To many reading this, you may not know much about Foremaster or even where it may be.
Foremaster Lane runs West to East in between Main St. and Las Vegas Blvd. The street goes as far East as Bruce St. dead ending at Rancho High School. This street along with some of Main and LVB all the way North to Owens St. are known as Las Vegas’ version of “Skid Row”. A good majority of our homeless population choose to either live on this street or loiter the street day to day due to little or no room in any homeless day centers (something out city currently is lacking).
Our facility and team of volunteers provide homeless individuals with hygiene packages, a clean t-shirt, socks and a water bottle every time we perform weekly intake services. Many of these services are not new to our homeless population (or providers) however these “temporal” services are essential in giving.
The beauty of having an actual facility on Foremaster is the ability to provide safety for volunteers (crowd control) and the luxury of being able to provide innovative services that our homeless population are in desperate need of:
-A full functioning computer lab
-Men’s & Women’s Clothing Closets (Interview clothing as well)
-Locker Services (Maned and secured 100% by CARE)
-24 Hour Hot & Cold Water Station
And the other Beauties of having the building is for future abilities to work with any and all agencies, businesses, groups, or local volunteers who can offer:
-GED Courses
-Life Skills Classes
-AA/NA/Crystal Meth Anonymous Classes
-Mental Health Services
-Medicaid Signups
-Or any additional services our homeless population needs
As you can quickly see, our main goal and objective is to serve the homeless population here in Las Vegas. We plan to do that by collaborating efforts with ANY and ALL organizations, govt. agencies, religious groups, schools, and our local community. If a group is willing to serve those in need, we need to work with you. If we are not willing to work with another for the benefit of our clients, we are doing them a disservice.
Again, with the question: “What is different about CARE?” We mentioned a few innovative services that we offer that are essential for “lasting services” such as the full functioning computer lab (job resume building, job resourcing), our job interview clothing closets and the locker storage. However we have failed to mention other unique services that numerous other agencies and case workers are requesting.
CARE offers to help with ID assistance, Birth Certificates, Bus transportation and Mail Services.
One of the greatest barriers that our clients face is the inability to acquire these important personal documents. Without these documents or ability to receive mail it is impossible to receive some government assistance, social services, or acquire employment. Without transportation, how do individuals find work? How to they get to their Dr. appointments to secure their health? How do they get to social services? Often, they do not.
Birth Certificate and Mailbox Service Success! (Catholic Charities Referral)
ID Success! (West Care Referral)
Hopefully you can quickly see why the CARE Complex is needed. Very few if not no other organizations provide these assistances. If they do, often times they run out of funding and are only able to assist a limited amount of clients.
The CARE Complex doesn’t wish to duplicate services that other’s already provide. We also understand the big difference between offering “temporal” assistance VS. “lasting” services. The CARE Complex hopes to continually mold to the needs of our local homeless population and will always find a place for others to join us in efforts to eliminate homelessness in the Downtown Las Vegas area!
