(pictured: Dr. Chad Audi) This is the time of year when many of us are celebrating the blessings of the season. We have a lot to be thankful for. I really think we should never stop counting the blessings we have received — starting and ending with the gift of our Savior — and including everything in between.
It has been said that giving to others is the best gift to give oneself. That is why this is a wonderful month to not only remember those in need among us but find a way to help others. If we think about it, no matter how little we feel we have, we always have something by way of time, talent, personality or treasure that we can use to bless those around us.
The Warming Centers, funded by the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department, are open now and expect to serve hundreds of homeless people each day across the city of Detroit. As president of Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, I am privileged, along with two other agencies, to have opened our doors this year to help our neighbors who have no place to go when the weather is dangerous outside. When they come through our doors, they are able to warm up, get a meal and find a place to lay their heads.
In addition, various emergency shelters in Detroit will continue to provide year-round shelter and support services to thousands more people. Many families are blessed with housing but struggle every day to meet ends meet. There are over 400,000 families in Michigan this year who face the threat of not knowing where their next meals will come from.
Sometimes there are people who have their physical needs met but they still need a touch of caring. There are lonely and isolated senior citizens who live in their own homes or care facilities who would dearly love a Christmas card, visit or phone call, or perhaps the faces and voices of young people caroling them.
At Detroit Rescue Mission, we have over 10,000 volunteers, 35,000 donors and multiple community agencies helping us to not only meet the immediate problems faced by people but helping us to generate real and lasting solutions. They come to us from all walks of life, all age groups, and offer a variety of talents and resources that are put to use in all our programs — emergency shelter for men, women, and children; transitional housing for homeless single adults, teen moms with children, women with children and men, substance abuse treatment, recovery and aftercare; peer support, youth camperships and leadership programs, vocational and educational services and more. In doing so, they help those who come to us become independent, move to permanent housing, start jobs and do the other things they need to once again be able to fully contribute to their families and communities again.
Volunteers, donors and our funders help make all of this possible. For example, Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries offers permanent housing for homeless families and disabled adults who have been chronically homeless, mostly paid for through Department of Housing and Urban Development funds. However, for every four dollars they provide, we have to find the fifth dollar locally, either in cash or in-kind. Volunteers and local donors provide all the needed matching funds.
Other volunteers and community partners help on another innovative program. We know that once people leave our programs, they may be working but remain saddled with a bad credit rating and debts from before they became homeless that make it difficult to get into decent housing. That is why the Working Homes Working Families program is such a great program. This is a program where a family with an income and children can be placed in a refurbished house donated to the program, refurbished by volunteers and furnished through donor dollars. During this week’s radiothon hosted by our good partner and funder, Mitch Albom’s S.A.Y. Detroit, it was wonderful to see three parents talk about how good it felt to have a safe, decent, warm home for their children, one they could afford and will one day be given title to as long as they maintain the utility payments and taxes and keep up the property. These homes are available because foundations, supporters like Mitch Albom and his charity partners, and hundreds of volunteers step up to the plate.
It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a community to help raise up a city and all its families and individuals to a place of restoration and hope. With the year-round help of people who are motivated by faith, hope and love, we can give help and hope to people who are ready to rise and stand. As I think about closing out this calendar year and helping my agency start its 106th year of services, I am so thankful and glad to be part of this caring community.
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