• A cityscape at dusk with tall buildings, lit-up structures, and mountains in the background. Some buildings have neon lights, and there are trees and smaller buildings in the foreground.

    Street-Based Outreach at RISE

Sign reading 'Reno: Biggest Little City in the World' surrounded by green trees and leaves, with a blue sky in the background.

Community Engagement Project (CEP)

CEP is a field-based outreach program focused on engaging individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness and complex behavioral health barriers.

Our team works directly in the community to build trust, reduce crisis interactions, and connect individuals to services that support long-term stabilization.

Who We Serve
Unsheltered homelessness
Substance use disorders
Behavioral health challenges
Justice system involvement
High vulnerability and complex barriers
Frequent emergency system interaction

Our Core Beliefs

Human Connection: Relationship is the primary intervention.

Dignity & Accountability: These are not opposites; both concepts rely on each other.

Predictability Creates Safety: Consistent support allows the nervous system to switch off the stress response.

Lived Expertise: Participants are the experts in their own lives; barriers are not a lack of willpower.

We focus on people who may struggle to use traditional services.

Outreach Data That
Tells a Story (2022-25)

RISE understands housing placement as the result of earned trust, document readiness, benefits access, and sustained engagement — not a single referral. Permanent housing outcomes represent the highest-value return on outreach investment

Emergency shelter & safe camp — 152 (58%) Transitional housing — 45 (17%) Permanent housing — 63 (24%)

Removing Barriers that Keep People Homeless

RISE outreach teams supported hundreds of stabilization milestones, including those listed on this graph. These outcomes are foundational. Without them, housing, employment, and recovery are structurally inaccessible. RISE treats these steps not as side tasks, but as core homelessness resolution work.

Number of individuals

Number of Individuals Supported

Family, Community, and Long-Term Stability

These outcomes reduce returns to homelessness and interrupt intergenerational instability, which are outcomes that rarely appear in enforcement-focused models but carry significant long-term system value. Whole-Person Outcomes Matter!

Make a Donation

Our street-outreach supplies are entirely community-funded, meaning that we don’t have grants that allow us to purchase things such as bottled water, first aid supplies, ponchos, socks, and more basic living necessities that we give during outreach. Your donations directly support us being able to purchase these items. Thank you!
3% Cover the Fee
A young man wearing a white t-shirt with 'VOLUNTEER' written on it, kneeling and talking to an elderly person sitting in a wheelchair. Both are wearing face masks, and the scene takes place outdoors on pavement near a white wall.
Multiple people of diverse backgrounds placing their hands together in a collective gesture of unity