CHAPEL HILL- The 5th Annual Project Connect will take place in October and is a one-day event to help people who are either homeless or at risk of being homeless with a variety of services ranging from housing to employment to health and dental care.

Homeless program coordinator Jamie Rohe says this year’s event has a new name (it used to be Project Homeless Connect) and an expanded focus on who the event will serve.

“This year we’re being very deliberate in expanding the population that we’re serving to really include folks who need access to these services who may not be homeless, but who are what we call ‘at risk,’” she says.

Rohe says that a free event like this takes a ton of planning as well as money and hundreds of volunteers.

“We also need some donations (because) this whole event costs the local community nothing (and) it doesn’t cost the local governments anything,” she says. “It’s all volunteers and the service providers do it as part of their work.”

This year’s event will take place Thursday, Oct. 13 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Hargraves Community Center in Chapel Hill. Project Connect events have served over 700 people in Orange County since 2007.

Project Connect is raising money to cover event costs and also launch a new program connecting homeless individuals with employers.

For more information, click here.