The annual Pride Stride walk to raise money for local non-profit groups is Sunday, April 28. The Times and the Pride Stride committee have been featuring some local groups that benefit from the walk, to highlight the issues these groups face. Not every group can be profiled, so please take note of the letters that are on the Around the Cape page.

By CHRIS PARKER, Times staff

Dave Russell said he's constantly looking for a job, filling out applications and handing out resumes left and right.

"Smash," as most know him, is homeless.

The 27-year-old has been in Action, Inc.'s emergency homeless shelter on 370 Main St., for six months now. He sleeps in one of the shelter's 20 available beds after a shower and an occasional meal of beans and hot dogs.

Russell has used some of the job-seeking programs through the shelter for the past three months and is hoping the programs are maintained so he can find job and then a more permanent home.

Keeping the shelter up and running for clients like Russell can be difficult in the best of economic times. But with state and federal funds for human services being cut to bare bones, programs like the Action shelter rely even more on private donations and community fund raising through events like Pride Stride.

Pride Stride is an annual five-mile walk along the Back Shore for non-profit groups and organizations. The groups walk together on the same day under the umbrella of Pride Stride to raise needed funds and awareness for their individual causes.

Each organization that joins the event must find walkers for that particular group. Each walker finds sponsors to pledge a certain amount of money for each mile walk.

The event, in its 15th year, will be held Sunday, April 28.

Action is a non-profit group that relies on local, private, corporate, state and federal support. It has been helping Cape Ann low and moderate-income families become self-sufficient since it was founded in 1965.

Action's shelter has received help from Pride Stride since the program started 15 years ago.

"Cape Ann people have been extremely generous to us, contributing money so we can run the shelter," said Peter Anastas, the director of the shelter.

The shelter has provided a bed, two meals, counseling and support services for 247 individuals during the past year. Forty-eight of those people have moved to permanent or transitional housing.

The shelter provides the only service for homeless men and women 18 years and older in Cape Ann with beds for 16 men and 4 women.

Action provides on-site counseling for personal and substance abuse problems, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, health care services, employment counseling and job development, case management, housing search, and a wide range of referrals.

Money is needed for the shelter's food budget, furniture including file cabinets, desks and beds as well as money to sustain its various programs.

The shelter is funded by the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, which is facing budget cuts for next year.

Those cuts mean curtailing the services of two social workers who work in shelters on the North Shore, one as a mental health counselor, the other as a substance abuse counselor.

"It's a curtailment of all services," said Anastas, "and we'll be affected by this and that's a shame because the neediest people are those who are mentally ill."

He said that the shelter sees a lot of mentally ill people who need more advanced treatment than the shelter can provide.

Shelter Manager Jackie Martin said about 75 percent of the shelter's guests have Cape Ann roots.

In years past, Action has had both staff and guests walk to fund-raise through Pride Stride.

"The bottom line is we appreciate any help we can get and we always appreciate the help that we get from Pride Stride," said Anastas.

To make a donation on behalf of the shelter, people walking in the Pride Stride are asked to indicate their pledge money should go to the Action shelter.

For more information about Action, Inc. visit www.actioninc.org. For more information about Pride Stride, call Steve Kaity, president of the Pride Stride Committee, at 978-281-3300