SOS – Street Outreach Services

In 2016, St. Francis assumed the ‘street outreach services’ in St. Johns County. Appropriately named “SOS”, the program consists of 3 teams – 2 focused on adults & veterans and 1 for youth. These teams travel throughout the county to engage the homeless on the streets and connect them to housing-focused services. Street Outreach is not for the faint of heart. The teams go to the woods and walk streets and the beaches providing basic needs to break the ice and develop trust. The goal? Housing!

Every day these teams connect the homeless with services to meet their basic needs, but most importantly to our housing crisis and advocacy and referral programs that help them return to self-sufficiency. In 2017, SOS teams moved 294 households to housing directly from the streets.

The Youth Street Outreach team is specially trained to identify and relate to homeless youth who are often hard to identify, and usually avoid adult services. Youth are connected to Port in the Storm Homeless Youth Center where they are can access programs geared to their unique needs.

To contact the SOS teams call: 904-293-3160 – Adults & Veterans, 904-293-3161 – Youth