On Thursday, February 24th, we will be conducting a point-in-time census of people living without shelter along the San Diego River. This vital count provides a snapshot of who is experiencing homelessness on a given night. This information can be used to plan local assistance systems, to tailor programs to meet needs, and to raise public awareness.
Volunteers will work in small teams to walk or hike along the river to count and interview unhoused individuals. Each team will have a leader and each team will walk an assigned River segment (1-4 miles) somewhere between Ocean Beach and Lakeside. Timing may vary slightly depending on your assigned segment, but most shifts will be from around 6am to 9:30am.
We will follow up with you before the event to assign you a location, meeting spot, and specific timing.
Here are a few tips about what to bring to help you be prepared for the event:
- Please arrive 10 minutes early for your shift to check-in with your Site Captain
- You must dress in long pants and close-toed shoes. Shoes must be either tennis shoes or hiking boots.
- Please dress in layers as the temperature may be cool in the morning.
- Please bring water and we recommend you bring a snack.
- We will provide pens, all maps of the census area, and clipboards.
- Please bring your smartphone, fully charged, in order to help conduct surveys.
- Volunteers must be 18 years or older to participate in this event.
- Only community service hours required for school (not court-ordered) can be verified.
This year we will be using ArcGIS Survey123 to conduct the surveys. It is a monitoring and evaluation tool developed with the primary purpose of supporting communities with the annual Point in Time (PIT) homeless census. It is accessible as a webpage on your smartphone’s browser, and will be used to help volunteers interview people experiencing homelessness. Volunteers who are comfortable will be trained on interview techniques by leaders the morning of the event.
We will be hosting a virtual training prior to the event, or you can watch the Regional Task Force on the Homeless We All Count Training Video to prepare.
We All Count Training (not mandatory)
Thursday, February 17
5:30pm – 6:15pm
Location: Zoom (information will be sent out closer to the date)
We will go over the data collection platform and what to expect the morning-of.
