Help Connect

As we approach the eight year anniversary of our ministry, I want to take this opportunity to update and thank all of our 25 active and inactive volunteers for all the many hours that you have contributed to Help Connect, AKA Helping Homeless Veterans. Your efforts have affected the lives of hundreds, maybe even a thousand homeless (mostly Veteran’s) lives. Our efforts have improved the opportunities for the homeless, reduced recidivism rates and maybe even saved lives.

Many volunteers ask how they can continue contributing to our cause. As a group, we have contributed keyboards, mice, flash dives, ear buds, paper and even printers. Over the years, we have remodeled the lab and repaired most of the PCs in the Labs. What we need most now, is new volunteers. So we are requesting that our alumni help to recruit new volunteers to work in the Atlanta area.

Pictures attached:

 Old lab with rugs and the clutter of center work stations.
 New lab with tile floors and less cluttered center section (special thanks to Tony Gasper and Michael Brons).

Again, thanks for all your help over the years,

Tom Chernetsky

Help Connect

On Jan. 24, 2019 Tony and I worked on the Lab’s PCs and the mal-functioning router. We took one of middle non-operating PCs, positions 6,7,8 & 9 (due to bad router) and moved it to the empty position #13. We located an ethernet cable and made the PC operational. We then worked on the bad router and found loose connections. We were then able to bring up the PC at position #6. Result: we now have 11 functioning PCs, with a net gain of 2.

In addition, the PC in position #10 was giving off an alarm (red light flashing and powering off). We swapped this PC with PC #8 and then took it apart to determine the cause of the alarm. We found the insides of the PC were covered with dust and dirt. Since we had no vacuum we could go no further.

Help Connect activity report for Dec. 27 and Jan 3. On Dec 27 Peggy and I supported the Salvation Army. On Jan 3 Tony and I provided support. We all focused on developing, or recovering emails for new “red dots”. Our efforts to help our clients check their ebenefits status were hampered by the federal government’s shut down. Tony was able to help a client with a request to determine state benefits.

In addition to the Salvation Army’s push for resumes for all clients we have been requested to conduct their quarterly satisfaction surveyWe will begin this effort starting next Thursday, Jan 10.

Recognizing the need for additional volunteers I will be addressing job-networking groups starting Jan 15. If anyone has any friends that might be interested in volunteering with our group please have them contact me.