A big thank you to Cross and Crown Church

Each and every Saturday of the year the volunteers with the Ministry of Hope at Cross and Crown Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois, serve a feast for the homeless and low-income of the area. Approximately 50 to 70 people enjoy the hot breakfast and lunch each week. Many partake in the opportunity to attend a worship service.

The volunteers and pastors of Cross and Crown are a gift from God to the homeless. They live from their hearts, offering smiles, joy, friendship, hope and support to all who need. They serve delicious meals, give clothing, bikes, and more. They give transportation to and from the church in a church member’s van. The Ministry of Hope is NOT even part of the church budget–all costs come out of their own pockets!

The Ministry of Hope volunteers are absolutely amazing! I honestly don’t know how such a small church can do so much for so many! Some may remember that it was this same church that was vandalized around Christmastime. There was an outpouring of support from communities all around, including an awesome new Christmas tree to replace the one that was damaged by the vandalism.

I felt glad that this church was able to celebrate Christmas and feel the warmth of the community help that we homeless feel when we go to the Ministry of Hope on Saturdays. I hope to return the love and kindness someday by finding a way to help them myself, perhaps by finding them a new or used van of their own to give us rides in to and from the church. It would even grant the church the ability to give us rides to the church on Sundays so that we may attend the regular worship service–something many of us wish to do but can’t get to the church on our own.

View a pdf file about the Ministry of Hope.

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Helping you help people like me

People frequently ask me how they can help the homeless.  There are millions of ways to help!  Here are just a few…

• Post in your church bulletin, on community bulletin boards, on Craigslist, etc, asking for room and board of a homeless person, house or other work in exchange for rent until the person has income.
• Offer resume help.  Look it over and give suggestions or help design a new one. Everyone is qualified to do this–it could be your own resume next.
• If you are spiritual, offer to say prayer.  Saying prayer on the spot can even do wonders for a person’s attitude!
• Give clothing, shoes, and accessories needed for job interviews.
• Buy the person a phone card to put minutes on their cell phone, if they have one.  Offer your own cell phone to make a phone call.  Tell the person about GOOG-411–a free phone directory service by Google, by simply calling 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411).
• Help the person set up a free email account online and teach how to use it.
• Help the person sign up and use job sites such as Hot Jobs.
• Assure the person is warm/cool enough during the day and at night according to climate.  Long underwear is always a hit in winter months in colder climates!!!  Check for a hat, scarf, and gloves.  Also wool and warm socks!  Hand warmer packets are good, but remind people that they can burn (especially people who have nerve damage).  Ask if they have a warm enough sleeping bag and blankets.  In warmer months, ask if they would like shorts, or for women perhaps skirts and casual dresses.
• Give camping essentials like a tarp to put on the ground to protect from dirt and moisture; a flashlight; batteries; eating utensil; 1-man tents or a large tarp with pegs to hold in the ground; a mini kerosene cooking stove (there are some that are single-use).
• Give transit tickets for getting to appointments, social services, or soup kitchens.
• Offer help getting laundry done.  Give them supplies. Some laundromats offer their own debit card that the machines use instead of coins.
• Offer non-perishable food like peanut butter (tip: Goober’s brand is peanut butter and jelly and needs no refrigeration), granola and cereal bars, canned goods, potato chips and “shoestrings”, juice and milk boxes or small bottles, water bottles,  powdered drink mixes, fruit rolls, foil-packaged meat and other food products, kipper snacks, beef jerky.  Ask if there is access to a microwave so you may buy microwave-ready foods, including everybody’s favorite, popcorn.  Ask about food allergies or dietary restrictions before you buy!
• Ask about health needs. For medication assistance, refer to programs for help and info like PatientAssistance.com, Partnership for Prescription Assistance, Rx Assist, Medicare Pharmaceutical Assistance Program, Rx Hope, National Conference of State Legislatures State Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs.  Ask if the person has blood pressure and heart problems if they could use an automatic blood pressure monitor, diabetes supplies, or other health needs. Also think to ask if the person has a special diet or nutrition needs, including vitamins.
• Give store gift cards and certificates. Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, and other retail–even mall type stores like Kohls or Penneys would make a nice treat. Grocery, restaurant and coffee shop gift cards are also very good. If the person has a car, or gets rides from someone with a car, offer a gas card.

I hope these suggestions help.  I will try to add more from time to time and add these to my site.  I will also try to make list of pharmaceutical companies who have prescription assistance programs, as I am also in that need right now!  Please feel free to comment to this post, email me, or send me a tweet on Twitter if you have any other suggestions, questions or comments.

Where have I been?!

I have been posting pretty regularly on Twitter so you can catch me there if I’m not on my blog.  I am very, very sorry for the lack of posting as well as for doing almost nothing for updating my site. Homelessness is hard.  So is having PTSD and mood issues, besides pain and health problems.  I guess that I have been taking a “vacation” from many things in life and trying to recoup by not “working” as much on things I ought to do.  Not that I am financially reimbursed for the work and time I do as part of my site, faxing and emailing providers to ask for free or discount services for the homeless, and trying to set up a directory.  But its something I love to do!  The reward of getting a response back from someone saying that they will help–its enormous to me!  I feel like I have let people and myself down by not doing this for the past month.  I was productive and busy, faxing and emailing, and updating my website and blog, making a directory of services, trying to do way too much all at once!  It really saddens me to think how little I have done and only posting on Twitter–and not even every day.  With thanks to Mark Horvath from InvisiblePeople.TV and all the inspiration I am getting since meeting him, I am starting to feel renewed–and perhaps almost even a little bit overwhelmed and scared.  I don’t know what is coming forth to me by appearing in his video but here I am opening up and admitting who I am as a homeless person.  I had a personal setback a couple weeks ago and have been starting over with trying to find new housing and health care.  Then I received the message from Mark Horvath as @hardlynormal on Twitter that he had just arrived in Chicago, and got his tweet about meeting him.  And the response from it has been simply amazing!  Talk about a mood booster!!  I can’t believe the response I am seeing from this and have no doubt that something will come of this!  I am feeling so much inspiration and I can’t thank everyone enough!  Please, please, keep this attitude flowing!  And for those inclined, keep the prayers coming.   I have so much more to say but I will end this here…for now.

Free Stuff in Chicago!

According to a report From Red Eye’s Chicago Now, there are freebies to be had in Chicago!

Headwear Association at 1000 N. Lake Shore Drive by Oak Street Beach is giving away 100 sun-protective hats at noon today!

The Museum of Science and Industry at 5700 S. Lake Shore Drive has free general admission today!

Dunkin Donuts is offering a free 10-ounce latte on Sunday for Father’s Day!

Homeless shelter needs help A.S.A.P!

Please help if you can–Prayers and $5,000 in donations are needed for a Florida homeless shelter by June 10th! http://www.missionincitrus.com/homepage.html

Need a temp job?

Ever consider participating in clinical research studies? I just got an email–Spaulding Clinical Research in West Bend, WI needs volunteers–who will be compensated up to $2,000. Acceptable applicants need to be healthy non-smokers, age between 18-50 years old, and have a body mass index between 18 and 32. They screen applicants on June 10, 11 and 12th. Go to the Spaulding Clinical website or call (800) 597-4507 for more information!

Oprah will give your shelter a makeover!

I just saw this online today–Oprah will give your shelter a makeover! Check it out! Looks like an awesome deal!!!

Free donuts!

Today only Krispy Kreme is celebrating National Donut Day by giving away a free donut of your choice all day today! Enjoy, and bon appetit!

Experiencing homelessness

In Edmonton, Canada university students will live as the homeless for 5 days for a fundraiser for the Youth Emergency Shelter.  They will live outside, not have normal access to food or shower, will always carry all of their things with them, including sleeping bag and more, and must still attend all classes and do homework.

And at Mount Olive United Methodist Church in Indiana teens raised money for a trip to Honduras by living homeless for 30 hours.  They lived in makeshift cardboard shelters, without any modern technology, and without food.

In both places, everyone learns how hard it is to be homeless.  They understand how things can be taken for granted.  They experience firsthand only some of the problems we encounter every day.

I hope to see  more fundraisers such as these.  They can help to raise awareness of our situation and discourage the stigma we often face.  Understanding comes from experience.  With understanding, comes compassion.  With compassion, comes hope.