. good sunday morning, welcome to "viewpoint. for more than 125 years, the salvation army offered a simple solution to the suffering and isolation of poverty and addiction and abuse that exists in our communities and society. the holidays are busy days for salvation army and the perfect time to focus on some of the many programs that help so many in our community. our guests this morning are aleata dawkins and major lewis reckline for the salvation army and leslye wooley.

welcome to all of us. major reckline, you do so much wonderful work all year long and angel tree is one of them. nbc 4 has been proud to be a sponsor and partner with you for so many years. how many children will get toys and clothing for the holidays this year? >> we're still taking applications but estimating 14,000 children in the metro area. >> that's great. that's fantastic. >> explain, miss wooley, how the angel tree works. >> the salvation army can provide toys and gifts from newborn up to 12 years old and the salvation army units will register families. low income families living in each of our service areas, then the salvation army will match those children up with donors that will provide the gifts. the gifts will start coming in beginning december 1st then we'll get everything organized and packaged for each individual family and families will start

coming in to pick up their gifts towards the end of december, all the way up through december 23rd. >> i've been to the new york avenue warehouse several times on distribution day and i tell you, it's an amazing picture of generosity and to see all of the bags stuffed in the warehouse room, stuffed with toys and clothing, knowing that these are going to make so many children so happy. it's really a wonderful sight to see. ms. dawkins, you i assume will be the recipient of some of those. your children, some of the children in the turning point center, will they be recipients of the gifts this year? >> absolutely, along with donations from the women's auxilia auxiliary. we're excited to receive gifts for our 27 families this year. >> okay. of course, it's the time of year for the red kettles and bell ringers out there. every year they get out there and they brave the elements.

how is that campaign going so far? >> it's very early. we're down slightly, about 24%. but this community has been so generous that the salvation army has been here, i'm optimistic we'll meet our goal. >> you kicked off november 9th, about the normal time? >> yeah, we typically go a number of days away from christmas and add it up that way. so people always say we see you early as we talked about earlier, christmas season comes quicker. we're out there earlier so it is around a normal time each year. >> what's the goal? >> 1.4 million. it's a high goal but service to community is important and we're excited what we're able to do. >> ms. wooley, the people can put money in the kettles. i know in previous years we've reported that you found other items in the kettles. they don't just have to give money, they can put checks in there? >> correct. >> people can put jewelry in there? >> absolutely, we've seen

diamond engagement rings and valuable rare gold coins. it's amazing what you'll find in the kettles. >> and of course, there is the kettle and then you can go online and donate with the kettles. tell us about the virtual bell ringers you call them? >> well, virtual bell ringers, you go online and start your own bell ringing program where you would establish a goal and encourage friends to go on to your virtual red kettle and give a donation to the salvation army through that and that will help you raise your goal and it goes back out to the community. >> is that a new program? >> not new, it's something we're trying to get a little more familiar into the community so a lot of folks aren't going to go out. a lot of folks don't carry cash or just are online kind of folk. they want to do it that way and it's a great way for them to participate. >> using the power of social media. >> absolutely, absolutely. it's fantastic, you can sit

there in your pajamas at home and click, online red kettle. >> you don't have to stand out in weather. >> right. >> we're talking to the salvation army this morning as the holidays approach and we'll be right back and show you the website that you can log dsz on to to help the salvation army. we'll be right back.

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the sometimes haphazard, never boring fun. the why can't it smell like this all the time fun. the learning the virtue of sharing fun. why let someone else have all the fun? that's no fun. unleash the power of dough. give it a pop. . welcome back. we're talking with the salvation army this morning. they have so many wonderful programs, aleata dawkins, you are running the turning point center and your clients are mostly young women? >> we accept families that from the ages of 18 to 30. right now we have about 20 families in our facility in the midst of an application process. we'll be at capacity before

christmas, which is we have the ability to serve 27 families. >> now, they come to you, referred to you by other organizations, that's how they come to you, correct? >> yes, most of the families that come to us come from referrals, community partners where they learn about the services that we provide to our families. we go through an application process where our families have the opportunity to see if turning point is the correct program for them and their families. we highlight the services we provide, which being independent life skills, our group support classes that we do with our families as well as out of poverty class. all of our families receive one on one case management and go through a phase progression process that allows them to move up in phase as they move through the program. >> and you were telling me while we were off air that a lot of the women you're seeing today need help with trauma, dealing with trauma, a lot of your

clients are coming to you with that in the background. >> a majority of families dealing with homelessness at such a young age, from rape to their parents, not knowing their biological parents, one of the things we wanted to do is making sure we have the necessary equipment and trying to provide services to those families. we serve a number of families who come from our local domestic violence shelters and serve families who are recovering. so our goal is to make sure we have the background needed to support them and provide those specialized services, whether we can provide that within our facility or connect back out to our community partners. >> they get transitional housing with the program? >> absolutely. >> they've been through the emergency phase of their experience? >> yes, most of the families come in from another agency. we provide them housing for up to 24 months. and during that 24 months, we

really work with them on vocational skills and employment, we now have a housing specialist that will work with families when they come in. so they can identify what resources, permanent housing, long term supportive housing that might be eligible for them when they complete our program. >> and miss wooley, obviously, there are many factors that lead to homelessness and housing is one of the first needs that to take care of for families that don't have roofs over their heads. in your emergency assistance program, tell me how you move them from the housing to some of the other needs being addressed? >> we actually consider our emergency assistance programs prevention programs. so if we can prevent a family from becoming homeless in the first place, it's more cost effective for the system and society and it's less traumatic on the family, just like aleata

was discussing. our goal with emergency assistance is preventing a greater crisis, preventing homelessness and utilities from being disconnected. if you live in subsidized housing can lead to an eviction. our goal with emergency assistance, to try to intervene early before someone gets to the eviction process. so we can pay for rental arrearages and help people get on payment plans to then be able to sustain themselves moving forward. >> how does that work? again, are you talking about family in crisis who have been referred to you by agencies, families on the verge of becoming homeless and who need help with their rent or maybe in danger of having the heat turned off? >> all of the above. people will go to our website and find out how they can get help. they'll be referred from other agencies. often the landlord tenant court in their resource center will have information about our

programs and people sometimes have left the courthouse and come directly over to our offices. we can do a very quick turnaround for people that have live -- in the middle of the eviction process and we've been known to have staff stay late one night to make sure all of the paperwork gets done so the very next day we can contact the landlord and send over a check right then and there. >> you also provide mortgage assistance? >> we do, it's a much smaller proportion but we do have that capability, yes. so if somebody is hopefully again before they have reached the foreclosure stage, we can step in and help assist with their back mortgage payments. >> okay, doing the work that needs to be done for so many these days. >> prevention is key. >> yes, we'll take a quick break and continue our talk about the salvation army and all of the wonderful work that's being done all year long. we'll be right back.

. welcome back. we're with the salvation army this morning. major reckline, i mentioned earlier the factors that can lead to homelessness and crisis in family. addiction is one of them and you have a wonderful program, the harbor light center that helps to cheat men who are dealing with this issue. talk about that. >> it's a good program because it's designed obviously for success. but we get men and sometimes women who come into the program and they stay for a period of time dependent on the type of services that they need. but they come in and get substance abuse counseling and hopefully it will prevent them from going to jail or prevent them from relapsing and going back out in the community to participate in activities.

>> ms. wooley? >> it's a fantastic program. 136 beds, we've recently renovated one of the floors to make a brand-new educational center. we're just really hoping that for a lot of people they may not succeed the first time but that harbor light is planting those seeds for a better outcome in the future. >> and ms. dawkins, you connect your women, your mothers with specializeed care. i would assume that's one of them. >> absolutely. we don't have a zero tolerance policy at our facility. harbor lights will be one of the referral services we would send our families to in hopes of reducing harm to themselves and their children for any potential abuse. it's also a situation where we wouldn't immediately terminate because they might have tested positive during their participation in a program.

>> around the holidays we're all focusing on food. you focus on food all year long. >> we do. >> the great patrol is a van, program and a van and it takes a lot of volunteers to make that program work. tell us about great patrol? >> 365 days a year we have a vehicle that goes in the communicate, staffed by volunteers, an amazing volunteer opportunity and you know, it has that many volunteers who come out to serve the community. they have meals on there for homeless folks in the community and number of stops we make each night and we not only provide them with food, but obviously in the cool weather we have blankets and have a caseworker who can get them some help if they want it, where she can get them oifgs and get them into a program that will help them if they need medical attention. it's an amazing program we're fortunate enough to have. >> what's most amazing is that

you have this community of partners who help you do this and who actually man the van, buy the food, do the shopping and do the packaging and distribution. >> we couldn't do it without those volunteer groups. we have 27 different volunteer groups that go out every month from churches to law firms to schools. they are just fantastic partners. sometimes it's just individual people that choose to do this every single month on our behalf. they go out and prep the food. we pick them up in a van. we have eight different locations throughout d.c. that we stop at. it's just like a bus route at 7:00 we'll be at the first stop, by 7:15 we've moved to the next stop. we have a case manager that can go out and she's driven people to shelter in the middle of the winter. winter is definitely her busiest time. she's handing out blankets and long underwear, all sorts of

cold weather gear, to make sure if people choose not to go into shelt shelter, they are equipped for the weather. >> that can be invaluable in cold weather. ms. dawkins, that's for cold weather. in warmer weather, you've got a wonderful summer camp and a lot of your clients are children that have been referred to you that you get from schools. talk about how the scouting program and camping program happy land makes a difference in the lives of these children? >> i think leslye would be able to explain it more, better than i can. >> i would love to. many of the children at the turning point families do attend our camp down in richardsville, virginia. this past year we sent 458 children to camp. and those are low income children that would not have the families would not have the funds to send them off to a week-long sleep away camp.

my favorite story about camp, there are two. a child came back and we were bringing them home and i was chaperoning the bus. what was your favorite part about camp? he said, we got to eat three meals every day. >> wow. >> and that predictability for meals he apparently did not have in his own home. and the other story was we drive through and drive past some farms that have gorgeous horses out in the past tour and bus drives by. i was chaperoning the 6 and 7-year-old boys bus. and i was sitting with this little boy and he looked and said, are those real horses? and i said, yeah. i've never seen a real one. and they are city kids, getting out in the country and swimming and fishing and boating and they just have a ball. >> we'll be right back. stay with us.

. welcome back. ms. dawkins, tell me about some of the programs that you do have at the turning point center for the children? >> i think just like leslye was saying about camp happyland, the predictability of having a place to stay. as far as the services we provide to our younger residents, our kids, we provide assessment, social assessments and behavioral assessments and educational assessments to support the family for any needs they may have. we also partner with the homeless children project, while our ladies are going through their classes or out of poverty classes the children are upstairs in a beautiful play room that was renovated a couple of years ago. where they are broken down by

age and have structurized play time. specifically due to the part of the city we are located in, don't have an outside play time. having a specialized time to play and have structured activities, we partner with volunteers, our volunteer coordinator does a great job in helping us find individuals who want to host parties such as the easter egg hunt. we had a harvest party and we'll have a christmas party coming up. it's really cute to see them decorate the christmas trees as wells get excited about the wreath. we had a delivery of trees and wreaths the other day. they are ready to put them up. as they struggle to try to help their moms carrying the thanksgiving baskets. we really value the partnership from the community and being able to provide those services for our younger members of our family. >> major reckline, all of the projects we have talked about are supported by what people put in those kettles.

>> they are. when you put money in the kettle it's staying locally and we have a number of local families we're able to assist with that. yeah, it's $1.4 million is a lot of money but not a lot money because we have a lot of programs we're helping the community with. >> you were telling me earlier this morning that bad weather is actually can work to your benefit. let's say snow. some people consider snow good weather. >> you think about it after thanksgiving, the snow starts to come down and you're out christmas shopping, and walk by one of the red kettles and it's snowing and it compels people to give. we don't want a blizzard, but we would love to see some white stuff to assist in our fund raising. >> and tough economy, i know that makes a big difference. >> you always need volunteers. >> absolutely. whether it's the angel tree program in helping get the gifts to the families or great patrol serving meals or wearing the

infamous easter bunny costume for the easter egg hunt, we're on the lookout for volunteers. >> i gather you may have worn that costume once or twice? >> no, but i might have to wear it next year. i'm looking forward to it. they're excited about the programs we have. >> they are wonderful programs an we want people to go out there and be as generous as they can during the holidays. it makes such a big difference to so many people. aleata dawkins, leslye wooley and major lewis reckline. thank you for all of the work you've done and work you continue to do. happy holidays to you. >> to you as well. >> thank you for being with us on "viewpoint." i'm pat lawson muse. stay with us now for "news 4 today." a series of worldwide th

including here in the united states. now. student whose actions led to a campuswide lockdown. >> it's been a little chilly this weekend. can we expect more of the same for the thanksgiving week? tom tracking the forecast as we head into the busiest travel week of the year. >> i'm adam tuss. we're coming off a cloudy, cold night. >> we're feeling the chill. it's on