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Guiding Light Mission - Community Awareness Profile You see them on the street. Just outside a cream-colored building on South Division. You see where they are. But not where they've been. Or where they are going. These are just a handful of Grand Rapids' homeless men, many who have been without a home for longer than they can remember. They are men who, in different times, may have played concert piano, run a small company, worked for a financial institution, played a professional sport. Or maybe their lives were much more simple, more modest. It doesn't matter now. They are all equal on the gray sidewalk. You see them on the street. A crowd of men. Faces and clothing merged into shapeless forms. Milling. Floating for just an instant as you drive by. You see for just that moment. And the moment evaporates. They fade into the background. You see them on the street. Just outside a cream-colored building on South Division. You pass them by and if you pause for a moment beyond the moment they are gone you can only ask yourself: what can I do about it? Why should I care? It is a question we all ask. It is a question they ask themselves. The answer comes that moment we pause. It comes from looking a little closer at what we see. See a little more now: www.lifeonthestreet.org Grand Rapids Musicians Against Homelessness ~ 21 Feburary 2010 ~ The B.O.B. ~ Downtown Photography by: Tim Motley
The Guiding Light Mission -- located in Grand Rapids' Heartside Community -- is designed to help men move from homelessness into jobs and housing through biblically-based transitional programs and services. These include:
The Mission also conducts S.T.A.R.T. (Spiritual Truth And Recovery Training), a multi-step residential substance abuse recovery program to help clients get their lives in order, while learning the skills needed to re-enter society and find jobs and housing. There is room for up to 36 live-in residents to participate in S.T.A.R.T. In operation since 1929, the Guiding Light Mission has seen its work grow more challenging in recent years. A rise in poverty combined with a shortage of affordable rental housing can often cost even full-time workers their homes. For example, it now takes 105 hours of work per week at minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market value. The Mission serves over 20,000 residents per year just for overnight stays, and countless thousands more through meals, Day Room visits, and chapel services.
The organization operates with seven full-time staff members and several hundred volunteers. It relies exclusively on private donations for its operating expenses. The organization has multiple needs beyond basic funding. Here are some suggestions: Guiding Light Mission Needs List Specialty Needs For information, visit www.lifeonthestreet.org or call: photos by: Tim Motley, www.motleycatstudio.com |
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