Church Volunteers Can Multiply Your Impact

Further Engaging a Ready Resource

• Tara* was working part-time at a gas station. As a mother facing homelessness, the limited, unpredictable hours and meager pay were not enough, but it was work. She was scrambling to support herself and her children, but was not able to move forward.
• Dixie*, a community college instructor, remembers when she and her then 8 year old son faced homelessness after a series of disabling hits. An abusive marriage, forced isolation from friends, divorce, caring for aging parents and—the final blow—being financially deceived by a family member, all took their toll. She tried to make do with monthly visits to a food bank, but was overwhelmed when the eviction letter came.
• Chris* was paying $500 a week to rent a hotel room for her teenage daughter and herself, which left the single mother with no money for a car. Every morning, she walked two miles to get to work, and every afternoon, two miles back “home” to the hotel room. By evenings, she had no energy and was consumed with just trying to keep up.

The stories we hear from families facing homelessness are unique to the experiences of each individual family. But there is often one common thread – the lack of a strong support system. The Bassuk Center on Homeless and Vulnerable Children & Youth finds that many homeless women have exhausted their supports after months and sometimes years of doubling-up in overcrowded and often substandard apartments, setting the stage for entering emergency shelter. They write, “Support networks are women’s social capital, a resource which poor women and women in crisis must often draw upon very heavily.” Close relationships with friends and family serve to ease the strains of daily life, and to protect in times of economic and social stress, which help families to remain housed.

If you’re called to address the need for supportive relationships, you can further engage a volunteer resource you may already have to assist families who lack healthy social supports. Christian faith communities believe that God calls the Church to

• relationships
• bless others
• vulnerability
• be a renewed community

Especially today, church members are hungry to make a difference and to be part of solutions. They are seeking out new ways to help families facing homelessness in their communities, in their school districts and in their own congregations. You can help prepare church volunteers to be a resource of support for the families you serve by providing training and guidance. Building social supports is one of the most impactful ways you can help families reach long-term success. At Bridge of Hope, we call it Neighboring.

Thank you for your deep care of the families you serve,

Anne Dunnenberger
Director of Outreach

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