Episode 1: Miracle Messages

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guest: Kevin Adler, Founder, Miracle Messages

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host.

Series Introduction: This episode is part of a series of interviews we conducted through our participation in the Bay Area Video Coalition’s TV Show titled San Francisco Nonprofits Spotlight. The interviews were conducted via Zoom from April to June 2020 during the height of the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Shelter in Place requirements. The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community. Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the pandemic.

Show Guest Kevin: So, here's this moment where if we think about it, and we're honest with ourselves on this show, right? George, if you think about it, like we were not interacting with our neighbors experiencing homelessness before, COVID-19 you know, maybe you give a couple bucks on the streets. You say hi, you kinda of smile. That's about it.

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode we feature the voice of Kevin Adler, the Founder and CEO of Miracle Messages. Kevin started Miracle Messages in honor of his uncle Mark, who lived on-and-off the streets for 30 years. Miracle Messages helps reunite families through helping community members who are un-housed to record short video messages to a family member. Volunteers, referring nonprofit and government partners or formerly homeless ambassadors help record the message. Then a network of volunteer digital detectives attempts to locate the un-housed person’s family to deliver the message. The digital detectives also work with the family and the un-housed person to facilitate a reunion. As of the recording of this episode Miracle Messages has facilitated over 325 family re-unifications.

Show Host George: Kevin Adler, founder and CEO of Miracle Messages joins me now remotely from quarantine via zoom. Thanks for being here, Kevin.

Show Guest Kevin: Yeah, it's my pleasure to be here with you, George.

George: So, I wanted to really start off with, how has the COVID-19 epidemic impacted Miracle Messages, reunion services

Kevin: Aaah, quite a bit. So, uh, you know, Miracle Messages is the nonprofit I run. We help people experiencing homelessness reconnect to their loved ones. Our core service for the last five years has been a reunion service. And what we found is with, uh, the shutdown in a lot of cities, they're equivalent programs for family reunification have been shut down.

So, in San Francisco, as an example, ah Homeward Bound is the family reunification service that's kind of been put on hold for the time being. And to take a step back of what that means. Uh, in San Francisco, a person who's in a shelter experiencing homelessness, who has a successful exit to get housing. 30% of the time that successful exit is as a result of Homeward Bound or family reunification. And so suddenly this program gets put on pause. You have all these individuals who are now being put into hotels. There's still a huge value in need to help them reconnect to family and friends. So, Miracle Messages, our hotline 1-800 Miss You has been increasing call volume, significantly. Uh, we've had more and more families reaching out to us, looking for their homeless relatives. Because if you imagine if you have a brother or sister or son or daughter on the streets right now, my gosh, like you want to know where the person's at, what's going on, how can you show up for them? And then, then maybe the one other thing I just mentioned, George, is.

Ah couple of weeks ago, I guess five or six weeks ago, the head of the department of homelessness reached out and said, hey, you do all this great reunion service work using volunteers as ah digital detectives to find level ones, make phone calls, reconnect people with their families. Could you mobilize your volunteers to help the people experiencing homelessness who are being moved into hotels, and who are right now super isolated and lonely through kind of a virtual buddy system?

And so, from that little germinated, uh, idea, we've now developed Miracle Friends. Uh, which is sort of ah first of its kind virtual buddy system, connecting volunteers with people experiencing homelessness, be moved into hotels for weekly phone calls, text messages. To provide general companionship and support. And so that's uh now live and has only come up in the last five weeks as a result of COVID-19.

George: The other two pieces, that are part of your emergency fund is you've also been working with hospitals as I recall, to help locate people, because again that's part of your service. And then, you know, the whole mass sanitization of people who are still living out in the open.

Kevin: Yeah, that's right. Thanks for bringing that up. So, uh, the hand sanitizer, the masks, the critical supplies, that was our initial response to COVID-19. So, everything gets shut down. We don't operate a shelter, you know, we don't have a soup kitchen, but a lot of our partners do. So suddenly they still have a huge and growing client load. We're able to kind of have some breathing room and, you know, work remotely. And we're like, well, where can we add value to these partners?

Because they're overwhelmed right now. And that's where we were working. We got about 120, 125 shipments, deliveries and procurement. Uh, and we're even creating our own miracle messages, label of hand sanitizer with a local distillery. That's repurposed their manufacturing processes to be focused on hand sanitizers instead of liquors and spirits. And then the hospital piece that you mentioned, George, is a really emergent program that we're excited about. You know, even before COVID-19, uh, hospitals have kind of a term that they use, uh, you know, some variation of aah frequent flyers of the emergency room or a friendly face of the emergency room.

These are people often who are experiencing homelessness, who use the ICU as a waiting room. So, during COVID-19 as you can imagine, where every single bed is just. Mission critical. Like you do not want someone staying in a bed any day, let alone hour longer than they need to. Uh, it becomes increasingly important to try to, find next of kin for those individuals, find a support system, uh, the emergency contact.

So, we've been starting to work with hospitals to do that. They're swamped right now. They've got a lot going on. Uh, so it's really a matter of finding the right caseworkers, social workers. you know, outpatient services and then connecting the service there. Uh, but yeah, working with hospitals to help people in the ICU reconnect to loved ones when they're experiencing homelessness is another service we've started to offer as well.

George: How can people actually get, uh, engaged with Miracle Messages? You know, I knew you have a wonderful volunteers, especially your wonderful detective group and then you've also set up a, you know, a monthly, uh, funding where you're trying to basically deliver care packages to people, socks and the like. But, you know, in this time, and a lot of people have time on their hands. how can people actually help you and Jess and your volunteer army to reach more people?

Kevin: Yeah, that's a great question. If you're interested to roll up your sleeves and be a volunteer, uh, we would love to have additional folks volunteer to connect with their neighbors, experiencing homelessness as Miracle Friends so they can go to miraclemessages.org and learn more about that program and apply to be a volunteer. If they'd like to locate loved ones and be a digital detective for good. So, making phone calls, writing letters, trying to find family members who ah might want to reconnect to a person experiencing homelessness. They can go through our get involved page on miracle messages.org. Um, and then beyond that, you know, we're always looking for strategic help with, you know, sponsorships. Partnerships, expansion to new cities, fundraising, uh, you know, marketing, cross promotion. Uh, so really whatever your skill set is and whatever your kind of network and time, talent, treasure ties, kind of the, the forties, uh, just be in touch. You know, I'm, I'm online, easy to get a hold of, but just through our website, miraclemessages.org, and we'd love to hear from you.

George: And then, um, going back to the COVID-19 emergency fund, um, how are you guys doing with regards to, I know you're trying to raise funds to obviously do the, you know, the mask and the sanitizer and do more outreach. Um, you know, do you have an active campaign going at this point that people could, go to?

Kevin: We do, so they can go to miracle messages.org/covid19, and that's where you'll see the emergency fund and kind of what that fund is used for. Uh, admittedly, we're not the most talented fundraisers in the world, you know, I mean, we're, my uncle was homeless for 30 years and I started this work for him.

Uh, our team is a full-time team of two people. Uh, and then we have a part time team of two or three people and then a huge network of volunteers that advisors who make this work. So, you know, for folks who do want to make a donation and support our emergency fund. Uh, where the money is being used to not only ensure, you know, kind of the continuity of our core services, our staff, but also to fund things like hand sanitizer, to be able to facilitate these kind of Miracle Friends connections. They can go to miracle messages.org/covid19, uh, and, and support us that way. And we also have, a fundraising link on our Facebook page, which is a miracle messages on Facebook.

George: Given that we're all kind of locked down, what would you and Jess and the team like to see, um, you know, on the other side of this? What could be some of the best things that could come out of this? Especially now that, you know, it seems like we have more focus in the city and the state and the feds to some degree than ever before on, unhoused community members. So, what would you guys love to see come out of this?

Kevin: Well, a couple things. So, before we're out of this, I think there's some things that can be done while we're in this that aren't being done right now. So, this is the best chance I've seen in the five years I've done this work for layering on other support services to a person who's experiencing homelessness temporarily in a hotel.
So, you know, people hear supportive housing first. Housing first is like kind of the. You know, best practice for the country. Housing first is a kind of five pillars strategy in which secure housing is the first step of multiple steps that then follow. So now is a perfect time for harm reduction, for understanding kind of the drivers of a person's, uh, housing insecurity.
Uh, for strengthening their social support network and providing kind of a buffer, accessing information, you know, helping to problem solve. So, I'd say number one is layering on support services to people in the hotels. That's one number two right now, is it's a perfect time to be forming relationships with people experiencing homelessness through these tools that we're relying on to communicate with each other.

As housed people, right? So, here's this moment where if we think about it, and we're honest with ourselves on this show, right? George, if you think about it, like we were not interacting with our neighbors experiencing homelessness before, COVID-19 you know, maybe you give a couple bucks on the streets. You say hi, you kinda of smile. That's about it. Well, we're now in an instance where we're kind of isolated at home. Keeping socially distance from others. Our experience in a person who's experiencing homelessness, though I wouldn't trade my situation for theirs by a long shot. There's a little bit more of a familiarity than existed before.

There's a little bit more of like, yeah, I'm isolated too. I'm feeling anxious. Uh, you know, I've been affected by this. I'm, I'm nervous. I don't know what's going to happen. My jobs unstable, right? So, I think that moment of shared experience provides a gateway to form connection and understanding and recognition. And that's where Miracle Friends is really trying to make the most of that is to form those relationships.

And that matters because once they, you know, whatever comes after COVID-19 with the hotels and, you know, the next stage of emergency housing or supportive housing. People are going to need friends and supporters and neighbors who stand up for them and know them and say, Hey, it's not just, we need to house the homeless.
It's Joe. He needs to be in an apartment. Right? And here's how he got on the streets. So that's what we're trying to build right now, is that relational piece and that kind of support services piece so that when the hotel thing ends, they'll be more energy towards getting people permanently housed, which is of course what we're all after.

George: Thank you very much, Kevin, for sharing your team's work today. And, we're going to make sure that the viewers, have all your contact information website. Thank you for sending all of that information as well. And please, you know, you Jess the whole team out there cause you're out there, uh, working, please stay safe. And, uh, I really appreciate all your work, as we work our way through this. So, thanks for the time. Have a good weekend.

Kevin: You as well. Thank you.

Episode Outro - Show Host George:That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voice of Kevin Adler, the Founder and CEO of Miracle Messages. As part of their response to providing support for un-housed community members to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, Kevin mentioned their Emergency Fund. The Emergency Fund supports their virtual buddy system, helps hospitals to locate family members for homeless patients and to procure masks and sanitizers. To find out more about the program please visit miraclemessages.org/covid19 I think Miracle Messages’ term Everyone is Someone’s Somebody sums up our community’s need to see our fellow un-housed community members as people just like us who need our help.

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoyed the insights, points of view and personal stories from the voices of change makers and their nonprofits featured in the series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofit and staff members, featured in this episode please go to my web site georgekoster.com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to this episode. Please consider a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada as well as the wonderful team at Bay Area Video Coalition. Go to www.bavc.org to find out more about Bay Area Video Coalition’s services. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to georgekoster.com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows like this. Please rate us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and share this story with your friends. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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