The Union Gospel Mission (UGM) Twin Cities recently held its 120th Anniversary Open House at their men’s campus in St. Paul. It was a momentous celebration with food trucks, live music, face painting, and community partners. In the line of community partners in the parking lot eagerly awaiting potential clients to connect to services was the MACV outreach team!  

On-site at the UGM Men’s Campus, we partner with Ramsey County and the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs to connect Veterans to legal services, employment resources, and housing. A Veteran currently in the program shared, “this program helped me realize that no matter what, I had someone to keep me on track; this program saved me.” There is a designated area with 20 single-occupancy rooms where MACV outreach team members go weekly and help the Veterans get connected to resources with the goal of helping the Veterans end their experience of homelessness. “It started with five rooms, but every Veteran in the program was doing so well we were able to expand it and hope to keep expanding it to the women’s campus,” shared MACV outreach team member Amanda Hooper.  

  The outreach team’s work at UGM is one of many ways MACV impacts homelessness in the Veteran community. Our outreach team has two focus areas, connecting Veterans to MACV for services and spreading awareness about MACV to other service providers and the community. Outreach team lead Christine Bridgeman and outreach team members Amanda Hooper and James McCloden have designated times in several shelters across the metro area and attend community outreach events.  

Community partnerships and events like this are helping us reach our goal of ending Veteran homelessness in Minnesota!