The Haven of Manitowoc County, just like every other organization throughout the Country, faced some major challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Haven serves as an advocate for homeless men while providing community resources and an interfaith approach towards self-sufficiency.
We spoke with the Executive Director of the Haven, Michael Etheridge, who said working through a world health crisis is very difficult, and that they had to make some quick decisions.
“We offer space for AA and NA 12 step program meetings, and unfortunately we had to dissolve that relationship, to keep people out of the building,” he explained. “Another one was, instead of 120 for our capacity, we had to take that capacity down to now 12.”
Etheridge said the organization closed their doors for two to three weeks in the middle of the pandemic in order to regroup and figure out what they were going to do next.
“We had men wearing masks and taking temperatures at night, and hand washing stations,” Etheridge said. “Now that things have opened up we don’t have men wearing masks all the time. Most of our volunteers and staff have been vaccinated.”
Etheridge said that over the next couple of months, they are hoping to increase their population, and said he wants to “dive into more life skills and curriculum to give men those tools to not only self-resolve but to stay self-resolved. We don’t want anyone returning to homelessness.”
He also said he hopes to push their aftercare program again, where they check up on people that have graduated from their program.
