An intern, a woman experiencing homeless, and I went to a city council meeting on Monday to discuss the long waitlist for shelters in Columbus.  We informed the councilmen of the long wait-list including women and veterans and the recent loss of stimulus monies to house individuals experience homelessness.  They listened and responded to our concerns.  I am planning to have a meeting with Councilmen Hearcel Craig, who gave me his phone number and told me to call him.  At this meeting, we will inform him that it is necessary for additional shelter space in churches and recreation centers to meet the demand.

Joe told us about his new social enterprise, FrameWORK.  He discussed his executive summary, funding streams, and the type of employees he wants for his workforce development program.  His goal is to hire felons with non-violent/theft offenses to do entry-level labor work.  From this meeting I learned that you need to have a good executive summary to get buy-in from investors.  Joe has collected data about the initial costs, when the company would start to make money, and the “social return on investment” (more people not relying on state assistance).

Joe also gave us advice how to improve Street Speech, the Coalition’s social enterprise.  He gave us advice how to increase the revenue of Street Speech since it is actually losing money now.  He believes that the vendors need more sales professional training and the placement of vendors should be more controlled.  We are meeting these needs by having a mystery shopper & a readership survey.

Today we carried out the first secret shopper experience.  The shoppers were able to find both negative and positive interactions of the vendors in the downtown area.  With the information I received I will discuss the results at the next vendor meeting so everyone is aware.  I plan to work with a researcher at the International Poverty Solutions Collaborative (IPSC) to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data.  This data will be aggregated and sent to future donors.

David