“Seeing the plight of the homeless on a daily basis while walking to our building made me wonder “what could I do to alleviate some of their struggle?” These fellow human beings can be seen sleeping on card board with only newspaper or a tattered sleeping bag covering them. ” I investigated through several San Francisco agencies and discovered many services are available for the homeless to get meals, shelter when space is available, and also free medical care.
HEART – (Homeless Eat and Rest Today) came into existence with a thought turned into action. I decided that perhaps the homeless may not know of services available and that if nothing else creating a card with a list of the services would give me some entry into a dialogue with the poor and now based on your input actually finding out what their real needs might be: “Developing a Hand Up vs. a Hand out”.
I initially shared my idea with a very good friend! , Thomas Yohanan and he suggested! I try to identify 10 services to keep the card simple and easy to use. I took that idea to HEART and began the research on what was most needed. I also shared this concept with my family and my sister Rebecca named the project HEART and my other sister Katie suggested to Have a HEART for the slogan to hand them out.
I shared my idea with several people at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm where I work and with their input the HEART project expanded to include Suzanne Lau in VCN creating the card, Woody from Pitney Bowes in the Repro Graphics department agreed to laminate and cut the cards and based on a recommendation of Richard Lovin, I spoke to John McCaffery, our West Coast Managing Partner and he is sponsoring Burger King Gift Certificates to be available to hand out with the cards. Ann Desautels suggested that we may also elect to make a bag lunch or bring a pair of socks to hand out with the card. I! have spoken with Loretta at the! St Vincent De Paul Society and she may do a similar project for San Mateo Cty and have identified a woman that may take this on in Sacramento.
Again, your input regarding creating some coupon concept to encourage the poor to recycle the cards will be explored as part of making this project sustainable. I will work with the various agencies to see if we can also leave donation boxes so that people can fund the lunch program, phone cards and other services to help sustain the program.
The most amazing part of this project, even if nothing else happens is the awareness that people do care about the poor, people at all levels in my firm want to make a difference for the poor and that independent of the government programs and the non profits programs, that individuals are out there today making a difference.
The other wonderful part of this project is the awareness that input from others can generate new ways of making this program even better. If I can take your concept of a Hand Up vs. a Hand Out, that would make this even more valuable to providing Glory to God. I am just becoming more of a leader and developing the skills necessary to develop such programs, so if you have additional insights or contacts that can make some of these things happen, I would greatly appreciate that too. If you can use any of this in You Voice of the Poor literature or other media, please let me know. I would love to! get the message out to the world ! of people’s care for the poor.
Sincerely and with peace,
Gretchen
Tags: Anti-poverty strategies
