Downtown ambassadors recognized for work with the city’s homeless population
The Downtown Reno Partnership—which operates the city’s downtown business improvement district—has been in existence for three years. It was only late last year, however, that the organization changed its approach to helping the city’s homeless population from a broad to a targeted one. Now, the BID and the ambassadors who make up its frontline workers have been recognized by the International Downtown Association (IDA), of which many BIDs are members, with a Downtown Achievement Award of Excellence.
The Downtown Reno Partnership employs ambassadors who work on the streets of downtown Reno, assisting everyone from tourists to homeless individuals. In years past, the ambassadors provided services to the homeless broadly. Beginning in late 2019, they began taking a more one-on-one, focused approach to helping individuals—working instead with a few chronically homeless individuals full time.
The goal, according to a release made about the award, “was to assist people as closely as possible while helping them navigate service providers. The Ambassadors now do whatever it takes to keep individuals off the streets and out of the penal system.”
They call this project “One-at-a-Time Homeless Outreach.” Within a month of its starting, ambassadors began moving people into permanent housing. In the months since, more than 33 people have been re-housed using this approach.
The Downtown Reno Partnership submitted “One-at-a-Time Homeless Outreach” to the IDA for consideration of its annual Award of Excellence. It was among 29 qualified entries in the category of “Public Space Management and Operations.”
In a release about the award, David Downey, IDA president and CEO, said, “Downtown Reno Partnership has shown expert application of professional urban place management principles with their project One-at-a-Time Homeless Outreach.”
Downey said it “should serve as a model example to all member communities within IDA,” of which there are about 1,400. Read More