Carry It Forward, a local homelessness services nonprofit, partnered with Trillium Community Health Plan to provide two mobile shower units for those in need.
The showers, funded by Trillium, are located at Everyone Village, a shelter that offers housing and employment solutions, and at a COVID-19 quarantine and isolation site on Highway 99.
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“We’re honored to partner with Trillium on what is truly a community-guided project that meets a local community need,” Kris McAlister, executive director for Carry It Forward, said in a news release. “Each mobile unit is more than just a shower. These units represent our intention to meet people where they are, develop solutions collaboratively, involve our unhoused neighbors in the building and decision-making process, and ultimately create opportunities to contribute and make a real difference.”
The shower units were built by students from Carry It Forward’s vocational programs, as well as students from Connected Lane County and local schools. One shower has a ’70s theme and the other is decorated with flamingos. Carry It Forward hopes to find funding to place additional units at other locations in the Lane County area.
“At Trillium, we’re committed to partnering with local organizations to address the entire health needs of the communities we serve,” Suellen Narducci, Trillium’s chief operating officer, said in the release. “That means not only connecting people to medical, dental and behavioral health care, but also addressing the social determinants of health including access to housing, food, transportation and personal hygiene options such as these mobile shower units.”
Contact reporter Tatiana Parafiniuk-Talesnick at [email protected] or 541-521-7512, and follow her on Twitter @TatianaSophiaPT.