Sunday, February 21, 2010

Flyer Mania in Little Haiti


Given that's there's little more than week left to go, we've decided that we needed to get the word out - but in person. So this afternoon, we took to the streets of Little Haiti in an effort to let people know what we're doing and how we can help them.

We hit up a couple church parking lots (after asking permission of course) and flyered those cars like there's no tomorrow. We drove around and found a corner store and posted a couple flyers there too.

We finally found the main drag, NE 2nd Ave which is filled with storefronts, shops, and strip malls, all of them catering to the Haitian population that resides there.

For the most part people were responsive and wanted to take the flyers, even reading them right away instead of trashing them immediately. Although there was some misunderstanding as to what the fee on the page listed covered. Perhaps we need to make clear that the $470 is the cost of the application, NOT for our fees. We need to make this clear because there are attorneys who are charging for this service.

We also decided that the spring breakers are going to flyer Little Haiti on Monday afternoon, the day before their scheduled intake. This way, they'll be able to get a sense of the area upon arrival and a sense of the population to which they are dedicating their time. More importantly, they will also be able to hand a flyer to someone and say, "Yes, we are offering this free service and its tomorrow. Come and bring your family and friends who need help."

I'm hopeful that this will be a good beginning to their spring break experience and starting it off on the right foot - pounding the pavement in Little Haiti and getting a chance to talk to some people that they may actually help. I'm thinking that this would be an excellent beginning. We'll see how it goes...

-fdh