A new van from the Maslow Project, a homeless services nonprofit in Medford, is bringing case management services directly to Southern Oregon.
Erin Zelinka, development officer, and Matt Northrop, program director, in Maslow Project's new mobile van.
Jane Vaughan / jPR
Outfitted with a food pantry, fridge, internet and air conditioning, the van allows the organization to extend its services.
Matt Northrop, program director, said the goal is for homeless people to be able to receive case management services immediately, where they are.
“This is, in fact, a mobile resource center, where we’re trying to take our resource center here in Medford and our location in Grants Pass and actually being able to take case management into the community and have a comfortable place for people to be,” he said. “So they can come inside, they can sit down.”
Those services might include help with applying for food stamps, jobs, Medicaid or school enrollment. Basically, Northrop said, it’s all the usual services offered at their two brick-and-mortar locations, but this time, on wheels.
“We can do that in this space, not having to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a bottle of water for you, but now I need you to come to this place at this time.’ We can provide those services here, now,” he said.
Northrop said Maslow Project based this van on a similar model at Integral Youth Services in Klamath Falls.
Maslow Project employees demonstrate how case management appointments might work in their new mobile van.
Courtesy of the Maslow Project
Maslow’s van has been running for two months and is still working out some kinks.
The program doesn’t have a finalized schedule yet, but it will eventually have routine stops, likely at established events throughout the region, such as weekly meals.
Maslow Project is also struggling to hire enough case managers to staff the van. They’re still working on building out the van’s interior and plan to add shelves inside and a wrap with their name on the outside.
Grant money funded the purchase and renovation of the van, which included installing solar panels. The van itself cost just over $80,000.
Jane Vaughan is a reporter with JPR. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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