St. Pete social workers prepare for cold weekend, hand out supplies through CALL program

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Cold snaps aren’t new for St. Pete’s CALL program, but workers recently figured out what makes the most impact to help residents get through the drop in temperatures.

The backstory:

Social workers pack Totes of Hope and give them out to the community during cold weather in St. Petersburg, as part of the Community Assistance and Life Liaison (CALL) program. Now five years in, they’ve learned residents need more when there’s a cold snap.

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"Sometimes it's cold outside but not cold enough for the cold weather shelters to be open. So to be able to have those cold weather supplies to give to our client in the moment, I think makes a really big difference," said Heather Loychik, the director of crisis intervention programs in the CALL program led by Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services.

Loychik has been with the CALL program since the beginning, when it started as a partnership between St. Pete police and social workers to respond to calls that may need social services or mental health services.

Dig deeper:

Loychik said the CALL program has grown and changed, and they help anyone who may need something extra in their home or on the street.

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"We did not have the Totes of Hope or the cold weather supplies before, and we weren't able to assist the clients in that moment," she said. "It was, ‘okay, well, we can send you to a cold weather shelter’ or ‘we can get you there. But we don't have anything tangible to give you in this moment.'"

The CALL program is led by the Gulf Coast JFCS. Workers first connect through calls that come into the St. Petersburg police dispatch center.

"So that could be anything from they need to find a place to stay, it could just be asking for resources, it can be needing help with clothing or food items. So those have kind of been the two that are upticking recently," said Loychik.

By the numbers:

As new people move in and call St. Petersburg home, social workers said the CALL program is there to help, even when it’s cold.

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"I would just say it is a sense of security. It's a basic need that a lot of us take for granted," said Loychik. "We go home, and we get to lay in a bed with warm blankets, or we can get in our car and turn the heat on. We have hygiene items at our disposal. And I feel like to be able to give those things to somebody, it seems like a small give, but it makes a huge difference for them."

Gulf Coast JFCS said the CALL program has helped residents 19,000 times as of December 15, 2025. Fifty percent of those contacts were residents asking for help with something, and 39% were for mental health needs, according to Gulf Coast JFCS.