Do You Have Any Change?

Just like most of you have encountered, I had people asking me for money this past week.  One asked for spare change, another asked for $22.  As I was stopped at a light, I saw a man holding a sign that said "I am not lazy...Just going through a hard time".  

What do you do?  Do you always give them money?

Or do you question as to whether they will spend it on food or alcohol?

Many times it is easy to say no and walk on by, forgetting about the short interaction.

As I was walking through downtown Phoenix, where I saw several homeless men, it really made me think. They have no job, no place to go home to and most of them, no family.  It breaks my heart.

What can be done to help these people?  

I know many people who, instead of giving them money, offer to go to a restaurant/store nearby and buy them some food.  If they are legitimately looking for food, they will take you up on your offer.

Another idea if you are going downtown, is to carry some extra granola bars or water bottles.  Even something little could help their day.

Project Homeless Connect was started by Valley of The Sun United Way.  They work to provide goods and services, such as food, clothing, counseling and job placement.   As a volunteer, you work with the homeless to help find the things they need as well as getting to know them and hearing their story.

"FACT: About 8,000 homeless men, women and children are on Maricopa County streets and in our shelters every day." - Valley of the Sun United Way

I encourage you to volunteer if you have a free afternoon.  The next opportunity is on Tuesday, March 23, 2010.

First Southern Baptist Church of Avondale
1001 North Central Avenue
Avondale, AZ 85323
7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Links To Inform

Here are a few sites that I found useful when I was researching this topic and would recommend that you take a look at a few!

The Phoenix Children’s Project is a non-profit organization with the aim of helping the impoverished children in Phoenix.  They provide food, clothing, education, necessities and miscellaneous assistance to children and their families.  They commit to helping the kids’ build self-esteem, which in turn shows them self-worth.  In addition, they help the parents learn to fend for themselves. They will “give them fish a few times” but then “{they} teach them to fish.”  This site goes into detail of different ways you can help, as well as showing examples of how they have helped in the past.

The Phoenix Rescue Mission each year, has thousands of homeless people depend on them for food, clothing, and shelter as well as safety, spiritual support, addiction recovery, and a new start in life.  This site shares what programs they have, how you can help volunteer and a link to donate.  It is connected with the Changing Lives Center, which focuses more on building the people up, with the Children's Developmental Enrichment Center, Chapel, etc.  It describes what the real NEED is.

Kitchen on the Street is an organization that began out of a passion for helping those who cannot help themselves. One of the founders learned after many years of volunteering in local shelters that the most vulnerable never make it there. Kitchen on the Street combats hunger by taking help and hope to children and families in crisis. This site shares its story and mission to help feed the hungry, giving links to volunteer, donate and learn more about the problems.

Valley Of The Sun United Way mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of community.  Once you are at the homepage of this site, you are able to read about their goals, vision, campaigns, volunteer needs, donations and work.  It also informs you about different press and news releases dealing with them and their topics.  It is very resourceful and informative.

CNN.com is a great resource to find out about poverty in a more widespread form.  It searches to a few articles/sites about phoenix, but also shows articles of the poverty issue in politics all around the world.  It helps us to see more of the picture.

 

Hunger, Homeless, Jobless...Poverty...What Do You Think About It?

What comes to your mind when you think of poverty?

Homelessness? Hunger? Disease? Drug abusers? Alcoholics? Laziness? People on the side of the road with signs? Failed government policies? Orphans? Shacks? Dirty water? Africa? Haiti?

As we know, many Africans are living in horrible poverty and the conditions in Haiti are terrible.  In Haiti, there was 76% unemployment rate, children dying of the common cold, unclean water, etc…then…the earthquake hits. I won’t go into much detail now, but if you are interested in reading more or donating, please take the time to do so.

It has been awesome to see how people are joining together and stepping out in love to help one another. They are donating their time and money to these strangers.

Sometimes it takes a disaster to shake us into action and make us realize what is genuinely important.

What I want to do is take a closer look at poverty.  Not just poverty in other countries, but the poverty specifically outside our front door in the Phoenix area.

People are sleeping on the streets, homeless and hungry, in our OWN cities. What can we do to help?

 

Are we going to wait until a disaster hits to take action?

Here is an example of one man who is often overlooked…22 years of age.

Mark from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Organizations and missions are out there striving to help the needy in our community.  I will be going out and talking with the homeless and the rescue missions leaders to find out what the biggest issues are and how we can be helping.