With the weather starting to warm soon, we will see more people who are homeless staying outside. There are a lot of reasons for that and we must have compas...

Helping Hands of Springfield has implemented protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among our clients, and in solidarity with our entire community to “f...

Policy to Prevent Spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Effective March 15, 2020 through March 22, 2020 (unless amended before then) To prevent the spread of COVI...

The generosity of people in Springfield never ceases to amaze us at Helping Hands –every day of the year. When the weather gets dangerously cold, however, pe...

Remember the last time you were really sick? One minute you were feeling a little funny; 15 minutes later you’re collapsed in a chair wondering how you manag...

The following is the curatorial statement for the exhibit Facing Homelessness, which opens at 5:30 p.m. at the Springfield Art Association (700 N. 4th Street...

In 2019, here in Springfield, Illinois, 13 people who were homeless died. On Thursday, December 19, we will observe Homeless Persons Memorial Day to honor th...

Last night at the Springfield City Council meeting, a speaker referred to homelessness as a “disease.” While we should always give people the benefit of the ...

Myth #1 Dangerous and scary. The idea that all individuals with schizophrenia are violent is unfortunately a heavy stigma that accompanies the disorder. A re...

When I came to Helping Hands six years ago, I was looking for a job that fit my 53-year-old body better than the construction work I was doing at the time an...

This blog article is Part 3 in a three-part series about the WWC and why a “shelter and stuff” alone approach doesn’t work to address the issue of homelessne...

When I tell people I work at Helping Hands I almost always get the same sort of response. Expressions of gratitude for being selfless enough to be in social w...

(This is part two in a 3-part blog about Springfield’s seasonal homeless shelter. Part 1 examined what the WWC currently is and who uses it; Part 3 will disc...

(This is part one in a 3-part blog about Springfield’s seasonal homeless shelter. Part 1 examines what the WWC currently is and who uses it; Part 2 talks abo...

For the past eight years I’ve worked at Helping Hands. I am a shelter manager, which means I work the shelter, meet with clients one-on-one to help them, an...

The difference between “cardiac arrest” and “heart attack” is a matter of time. Cardiac arrest happens at once – the whole heart stops beating. A heart attac...

It’s the most misguided, and yet repeated, statement I hear: “Those guys need to get a job!” There are A LOT of people in our shelters (or a paycheck away fr...

To alleviate the issue of chronic homelessness in a community, it takes a coordinated, system-response that meets multiple social and individual needs of the...

It’s the number one question I’m asked about homelessness: “Should I give money to those people who hold cardboard signs on the street corners?” I start by t...