John Tumino

The Streets can be very ruff for our friends and when you add addiction and mental health to the mix its Life and Death. Today as we were serving a group of our friends lunch one friend (we will call him M) pulled me to the side lifted up his shirt and said he needed to see Doc. When I looked down I seen a huge abscess that needed to be addressed and got him over to see the Doc at the outreach van. M was suffering and in so much pain, once Doc looked at it he said we can bring you relief right now. Doc was prepared to lance the abscess and M was ready to have it done. 15 minutes later the wound was addressed packed, bandaged up and M was given a round of antibiotics with follow up care on Saturday. M was so thankful for our assistance and couldnt stop thanking Doc for his help. This abscess all started from an infected injection site while shooting up and if it was not addressed today could have turn lethal real quick. Our friends will not go to the ER’s because of shame and the stigma that comes with being homeless and a addict. Doc Lehmann’s work is so vital to bringing Value and Dignity to our friends, its priceless services! Doc doing these out of the box treatments save lives and bring Hope to our friends who feel Invisible. Adding Street Medicine to Street Outreach is a no brainer for our community. Is it the best practice probably not is it saving lives absoultely. As Doc says “lets not let the perfect being the enemy of the Good.” Today we did a GOOD thing!

One of the major issues outdoors is Trench Foot. What is Trench Foot? Its also known as immersion foot which occurs when the feet are wet for long periods of time. It can be very painful, but it can be prevented and treated. The challenge for our friends outdoors is staying dry when the rains come. Our friends are always moving around finding places to stay and walking miles a day is a common theme. Once your feet get wet and your living outdoors there is nothing you can really do other then wearing wet socks and wet foot wear. Today we came across our friend in severe pain and he was limping severly. Doc Lehman and Steve (Ms3) from upstate treated our friend by assessing his feet,drying them off and even put on his dry new socks for him. Other than giving him medical care they brought compassion and dignity to him right at street level. Having a medical team with our street outreach is such a valuable tool to show our friends we truly care about them. Doc will follow up with our friend on Thursday and we will do everything possible to encourage our friend to make a true change in his life. Socks are big on the streets and with your support we are able to bring fresh socks out every week. If you would like to assist us in purchasing some socks please click on the donate tab on this post make your donation and type in the memo box “Socks for Souls” thank you again

John and Leigh Ann

Recidivism to the streets can happen more often than you can imagine. One of our commitments to our friends that we assist indoors is 6 month of making sure they are safe stable and have all the things in place to stay successfuly housed. Our dear friend (we will call he N) is a survivor. N was living outdoors for a long while and we would reach out to her during street outreach bringing her meals, supplies and medical attention with Dr. Lehmann. N was a participant on our Hire Ground work crews as well and we were able to assist her off the streets and into housing. N reached out to us saying that she was in need of eye glasses and through our connection with Dr. Lehmann an intoduction was made to Dr, Jim Morrison. Dr. Jim treated N with dignity bringing value to her by assisting her with her eye care. Being able to see is a big deal and if Eye Glasses can releave stress for N and allow her to stay safely indoors thats a WIN. Thank you Dr. Jim and a big thank you to Dr. Lehmann for paying the bill on this wonderful gift. Our connections become our friends connections.

If you would like to support our efforts please consider making a wonderful donation.

John and Leigh

Covid-19 is a Pandemic that has affected all of us around the world but right here in Syracuse NY and Onondaga County we are also battling an Epidemic. Over the last 9 years of doing street outreach we have seen a rise in Heroine use among our friends who are experiencing homelessness. We have seen an increase in used needles laying around our streets were ever you go. One of the missions during our clean ups with Hire Ground is to locate theese needles and dispose of them properly so that our community is clean and safe from incident. Kevin (IMFK Van Driver) is reponsible for this task, Kevin wears special gloves that protect him and the needles are put into a sharps container that will be dropped off to a secure location who disposes these needles. Its so heart breaing to see our friends who are being ravaged by Heroine, this addiction is so powerful and its touching so many lives. Every week we receive calls from family members who are at the end of their ropes trying to figure out how to assist their loved ones. Many times family members will see our posts and thank us for doing what we do. During Hire Ground work days many great conversations take place regarding addiction. Kevin and Paulette are survivors of addiction and the insight and light they shine to our friends is priceless. They are lights shinning a way out of the darkness of addiction.

One of the great opportunities with Hire Ground is colaborating with other comminty partners for the greater good of our City and County! Today we partnered with the State Department of Transportation cleaning up under some bridges in our City. We received a call from D.O.T. Commissioner last week about a concerned bridge that was a mess and receiving complaints from community citizens regarding its appearance. So today Kevin, Paulette and crew went out to make these areas shine again. We always make sure that no one is living in these locations and if there where someone staying there we would clean around someones belongings and engage the individual who was staying there. Hire Ground has multiple opportunities with its mission and partnership with Onondaga County, first is to our friends who are homeless and panhandling second is colaborating with City, County and State agencies and third to you our Community members. This 3 pronged approach means win win win for everyone and Together we are Building Hope and Changing Lives

John and Leigh Ann