HEALTH CARE
46
Treasure Coast Medical Report
Love and Hope in Action has a clothing pantry for clients to pick out donated clothes.
hepatitis A shots. Once a month the Visiting Nurse
Association bus is here for health screenings, for
people to see a doctor and to register for health care.
“We feed the mind, body and soul, and it stabilizes
them for the time being,” says Zorbaugh. “We
are working to open an overnight facility (elsewhere).
The Source operates with 12 staff members
and 100 volunteers, funded by grants and donations.
Its motto is “The trusted Symbol of Hope for
the Poor and Homeless.”
Zorbaugh adds, “We couldn’t do this work
without the amazing people, our board of directors,
staff and volunteers who are on this journey
together.”
Through an extraordinary culinary program
seeded with grant money, The Source has graduated
almost one worker a month the past two years
to go on to work in Indian River County restaurants.
Catering students receive a stipend.
Helen Ayers, 58, is three weeks into the program
and already has a job at a local restaurant. “I
was on disability,” says Ayers. “I have a job now
and I needed that push and those encouraging
words. I came here to eat, and they made me feel
really good about myself. Church every day helps
me out also.” Ayers was hopeful she would be
settled in soon.
Because the hospitals in Indian River County
operate under a special taxing district, homeless
people receive up to one year of subsidized, basic
health care.
/www.southflaortho.com