Louisville

Downtown Louisville Ambassadors save dozens of people stuck because of snow

This news story was originally shared on WDRB.com

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The storm that brought 10 inches of snow to Kentuckiana made for a messy situation in downtown Louisville.

Louisville Downtown Partnership Ambassadors helped shovel snow during a heavy snowfall in Kentucky. (Image Source: video still from news coverage)

Even though many of the businesses were closed, the Downtown Ambassadors were hard at work all day Monday.

They saved dozens of people who were stuck in the snow and helped the business owners who did open clear the snow from their sidewalks if they didn’t have the proper equipment to do so.

They even got someone to a shelter.

Some of the Ambassadors hopped out of their truck to throw salt down if they noticed some corners looked icy.

“It’d be 80 cars stuck right now. We helped a lot of people,” Miracle Thompson, Downtown Ambassador safety team lead said. “It’d still be people on the streets like before the snow came and we knew the bad weather was coming, we was getting people and taking them to shelters to get them off the street because it’s white flag. They can’t turn them away. Yeah they need us. We are very important to downtown.”

The Downtown Ambassadors are out helping people seven days a week from 7 a.m. to midnight.

To hear more and watch the coverage, click here. 

Outreach Ambassador Gets Family Housing In Time for the Holidays

Outreach Ambassador Q helped find an unhoused family of six housing just in time for the holidays.

While bright color uniforms have come to be a staple of Block by Block Ambassador Programs, due to the nature of their work, Outreach Teams often do not wear any uniform at all.

These Ambassadors dedicate their working hours to helping individuals experiencing homelessness get connected with essential services. And, over time, we’ve found that they make more connections when they aren’t in uniform, as a uniform can be intimidating.

One of our Louisville Downtown Partnership Outreach Ambassadors, Quinton “Q” Thompson, has worked with us for one year, but in that short amount of time has dedicated himself to helping the Louisville community. He began as a Safety Ambassador but quickly found that he had a passion for outreach. Q can be seen confidently patrolling Downtown Louisville in his street clothes, making connections and meeting people with the purpose of helping get them off the streets into better circumstances.

Through a local initiative with the City of Louisville and Volunteers of America, the Louisville Outreach Team was approached to help find unhoused families who could move off the streets into a brand-new, block-wide campus that has both a shelter and permanent affordable housing built in.

“The family shelter has room for 15 families, and after seeing it on the tour, we were all excited and eager to do our part in helping to fill it and get families off the streets,” Q said.

Often, a challenge that Outreach Ambassadors face is finding street residents who want help or are willing to take help. But, just as Q was looking for families to move into this new facility, he serendipitously met a couple with four children who had recently moved to Louisville. Although they were unhoused, the parents were actively looking for work.

“Upon arriving here, they fell on hard times…I would never have even seen them had they not been out looking for work to improve their current situation,” Q said.

After meeting the family, Q knew instantly that they were a prime candidate to move into the new development. And, with his assistance, they were able to do just that. Right before some frigid Kentucky nights, Q helped get this family off the streets.

“For me to be in the right place at the right time to help someone who was trying to help themselves made it feel less like work and more like the right thing to do,” Q said.

Thanks to Q, this family will be celebrating the holidays with a warm place of their own.

LOUMED Ambassadors make progress in first year

This article has been shared from WDRB News, for the original article, click here: https://bit.ly/3w3ogKO

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Whether walking, biking, or driving a 22-block area a group of ambassadors are working to be the eyes and ears around a part of downtown that works 24/7.

Part of LOUMED’s mission is to invest in its Block by Block ambassadors, a team focused on helping maintain the area and improve safety or help visitors.

“We’re down here to help make people feel safe,” said Lamont Fleming, a LOUMED ambassador.

Anchored by Norton Healthcare, UofL Health, the University of Louisville and Jefferson Community & Technical College, LOUMED is a planned medical and education district covering a large section of the city’s downtown core.

“I know we are doing the best we can,” Fleming said. “We are doing the most we can to make this a safer environment down here, because its been tough but it’s gotten better and my team is working hard, our guys are working hard to make it so much better.”

Ambassadors are charged with tasks such as cleaning or picking up garbage, helping with directions or assisting people in and out of hospitals, greeting people and safety escorts.

In its first year, ambassadors have made 190 safety escorts, 3,000 hospitality assists, greeted 194,000 people, and picked up 37 tons of trash.

“People come out and sit out and eat now at places where they didn’t eat at,” Fleming said. “It’s not trash anymore because our team comes out several times a day and clean so they don’t have to see that all day.”

Their work isn’t going unnoticed.

Cathy Green spent 26 years working at Norton, and still frequents the area.

“It just looked like it wasn’t kept up or something, but then when I started to see those guys come around I was wondering at first what they’re doing but later on when I seen the difference in the area I realized, ‘oh so they must be cleaning and decorating or something’ and it looks a lot better,” said Green.

Ambassadors are just one part of LOUMED’s mission.

LOUMED, with $1.4 million in funding from the city, will tear down the Community Correctional Center to create LOUMED Commons, an urban park with green space and pedestrian-friendly areas.

LOUMED plans to acquire the site by October.

It also plans to reimagine an eight-block corridor along Chestnut Street.  Partnering with Metro Public Works, the project is in its planning phase, which has also received an additional $1.75 million from the city. The estimated timeline is 3-5 years.

In addition to city funding, the Kentucky state budget allocated $50 million to Louisville Metro Government for downtown revitalization, which includes the Chestnut Street project.

LOUMED said the area attracts more than 1.5 million visitors per year and employs more than 16,000 people with total annual salaries surpassing $1 billion.

It stretches for 22 city blocks north to south from Liberty to Breckinridge Streets and west to east from 2nd to Clay Streets.