What's Happening in Rosedale, MD…

Hundreds of homeless people from the Baltimore area were able to connect with free services recently.

Project Homeless Connect, which is run by the United Way of Central Maryland, hosted an event that day at the Baltimore Convention Center. Experts were able to help the homeless with many services, from giving free haircuts to helping them get identification.

The project provides 150 free services to homeless people in the area, and has more than 2,000 volunteers involved in the effort. President and CEO of the United Way, Mark Furst, said they ran shuttle buses to soup kitchens and other locations where people could get a meal. He also said the charity had done a great deal of street outreach, since he wanted to make sure people who needed help knew they could get it that day.

Free dental service is one of the most popular options available to the homeless, with 16 chairs set up to handle patients. In 2014, volunteer dentists extracted 105 teeth, and hoped to pull even more this year. One of the volunteer dentists, Dr. John Farrugia, said the dentists planned to offer some small hygienic services as well.

The program has been so successful, it could be a model for a similar national effort. Organizers might like to work with brochure printers to create a booklet about their services for distribution to other organizations.