What:
A mobile unit that would provide resources and direct services to Occupy Los Angeles  and the surrounding downtown LA community. This mobile unit requires the use of Occupy Los Angeles Wellness Committee volunteers, resources, and endorsement to use the Wellness committee name while doing outreach and providing services.

Why:
Occupy Los Angeles Wellness Committee has the belief in holistic health care as a human right as a principle of solidarity. A mobile unit providing direct services puts this principle into action by providing holistic services to the community.

How:
Wellness Committee volunteers will assemble and organize supplies in containers that can be put into a volunteer’s vehicle. Wellness committee will establish and publish a schedule for volunteers to go into the community with the “Wellness Wagon” to provide services.

Duties of Wellness Wagon Team

• Outreach and Education
• Medical Referrals
• Social Services Referrals
• Empathetic Listening and Support
• Provision of Transportation and Basic Supplies

Outreach and Education

• The purpose of outreach is to form relationships with the downtown community and inform members of the community of the resources available to them, including the regular times and locations of mobile clinic services.
• The purpose of outreach is to allow education to occur mutually between Wellness volunteers and the community. Wellness provides education and information to the community while learning and adjusting services accordingly to the complex community dynamics within the down town community.
• Outreach and Education is focused on the building of mutual relationships and engaging the community that empowers its members.
• Outreach will be the first goal of the Wellness Wagon team before entering the community to provide services.

Medical Referrals

• Discover individuals’ self identified medical need
• Assist and advocate for individual in obtaining necessary services
• Provide follow up with individuals

Social Services Referrals

• Engage individuals in conversation and build relationships
• Conduct holistic assessments, working with the individual to create achievable self-determined goals
• Providing referrals to appropriate agencies in accordance with the individuals goals and self-determination
• Follow up and advocacy to assist individual in navigating various agencies policies and procedures

Empathetic Listening and Support

• Support self sufficiency and self advocacy through motivational interviewing techniques
• Validating the individual’s self identified areas of growth and barriers as well as strengths and successes
• Supporting relationships and peer support by creating an environment for people to be safe to dialogue with one another
• Maintaining a policy of confidentiality and protecting individuals who come to the mobile unit for support and assistance

Provision of Transportation and Basic Supplies

• The volunteers present on the site will be responsible for determining what is reasonable for providing individual’s with transportation to agencies to receive medical and social services
• Wellness Wagon will keep in stock basic first aide supplies, some OTC medications, personal hygiene items, feminine hygiene products and condoms, and some water or snacks as donations allow.
• Volunteers on site will be responsible for the distribution of these goods and will determine what is reasonable to provide for an individual’s immediate need.
• Wellness can provide information and referrals for receiving such products and resources such as discounted bus passes from other agencies.

Membership

The Wellness Wagon requires volunteers to come in direct contact with individuals in the community who are potentially in crisis. It is important that anyone wishing to volunteer with Wellness Wagon are competent to provide basic services and interventions. While all members of Wellness have diverse backgrounds and skill sets, we will seek to continue self-education to increase our level of competency.  No volunteer should ever misrepresent their skill set and level of training to anyone, for any reason.

New volunteers will be able to participate in outreach activities while joining current members at the Wellness Wagon to shadow and gain experience for a one month period. New volunteers who wish to do more than outreach and provide direct services must concurrently complete appropriate trainings or equivalent during their first month of participation. Areas in which an individual is trained and competent determines the nature of direct services they will be able to provide. When Wellness Wagon volunteers go out to the community, they must go as a team and collectively have at minimum the following areas of competence:

• CPR/ First Aide certification
• Empathetic Listening Training
• Keeping yourself and others safe in escalating situations training (to be created)
• Ongoing courses related to Wellness as part of our self education and increased competency
• New volunteers will be asked to complete 10 hrs of supervision doing outreach duties. Further duties will be assigned based on volunteer’s level of certification and training, and demonstrated competence.

Location

The Wellness Wagon will have a schedule of locations and times at several locations around the community. This schedule will be provided to members of the community during Outreach. The Wellness Wagon will be able to be taken to new locations as new opportunities to serve the community arise.