Community in need
It’s that time of year again, when Broadway Community, which provides emergency food, shelter, and clothing to those in need while working on long-term healing of the body, mind, and soul, runs out of money. Summer is rough for some nonprofits, and for “BCI,” summer can be very rough as donors are often on vacation and it’s a dead time between grants.
BCI does an amazing job with their money; they get masses of food donations and training services from the community, and work on entrepreneurship and job training with a small number of clients who (in some cases) give up drugs or alcohol to turn their lives around. For these people, who faced a life of living on the street, BCI is Heaven-sent; a simple job in the service industry paying enough for a tiny apartment and regular meals may not seem like much to many of us, but to some BCI clients, it’s a whole new way of life.
Many other clients are not quite so badly off, and don’t need the training and support; they just need a temporarily food (and sometimes shelter) supply while they get their lives on track. To quote the Executive Director, Eleanor Donaldson, “Would you believe that in the past year, two accountants, two nurses, three musicians, an architect, a model, a computer technician, a grant-writer, a psychologist, an administrator, and two teachers have come to Broadway Community because they were homeless or in great distress? It has shocked me to see the number of professional people who have had things in their lives that have started a domino effect that leaves them with no resources for basic needs. For all of these people except one, drugs were not involved. An unexpected life-threatening medical condition, an accident, fraud, divorce, abuse, a spouse’s death, caring for elderly parents, another rent raise, a job layoff, … they found themselves in a desparate situation where they never thought they would be.”
BCI works to increase their clients’ sense of personal responsibility, not to diminish it, as some welfare programs can. BCI also works to educate their clients on proper nutrition, the energy they need for a healthy life - in spirit and in body - because what you eat influences how you feel and think. The chef, who voluntarily left a life as a well paid professional to work long hours for meager pay at BCI, makes sure of that, and this is one of the rare places where the homeless aren’t given corned beef hash and macaroni and cheese as staples; instead, they frequently get vegeterian meals, interspersed with chicken, beef, and even bison, depending on what local restaurants donate. But it’s always cooked with an eye towards helping people get onto their feet, long term.
This is my appeal to you - to visit the donation page at BCI and open your wallet, at least a little. I’ll match the first $500 in donations from Allpar through September 1, 2007.
Thank you.
