FRESNO\/MADERA, Calif. \u2014 Volunteers across Fresno and Madera counties were out Tuesday night, counting the region\u2019s unhoused population as part of the Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC).<\/p>\n
The initiative is designed to better understand the scope of homelessness and plan how to support those most in need.<\/p>\n
Organizers say this year, the effort isn\u2019t just about counting people on the street.<\/p>\n
KMPH<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Volunteers are conducting surveys to guide future services, funding, and outreach programs.<\/p>\n
The Point-in-Time count, we often think of this as a kind of census. But it really doesn’t capture the full scope of what we’re doing here. This is a snapshot of our community, a moment in time where we pause to acknowledge our most vulnerable residents and really strive to better understand what they’re going through.<\/p>\n
Volunteers began their Tuesday evening around 6 p.m., organized into teams assigned to specific areas.<\/p>\n
Each group surveyed unhoused families and individuals block by block.<\/p>\n
Here in Fresno, team lead Sara Rios guided her group through their assigned section.<\/p>\n
She tells FOX26 that she has been doing this for more than 11 years and shares why the work is important to her and those receiving it. <\/p>\n
“…being able to give back, it’s a different feeling to know that every day we’re making a difference, and it could be the difference in smiles, saying hi. You know, there’s a lot of individuals that are used to being looked through. We want to look at individuals, let them know that they’re valued, they’re cared for, and we’re here to hear them,” she said. <\/p>\n
So, why does the data matter? <\/p>\n
The surveys collected aren\u2019t just numbers, they help organizations know where to focus services and resources.<\/p>\n
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Volunteers will continue around both counties on Wednesday, wrapping up the two-day initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO\/MADERA, Calif. \u2014 Volunteers across Fresno and Madera counties were out Tuesday night, counting the region\u2019s unhoused population…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-154516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}