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City of Mesa, Prayer Breakfast
The Third Annual City of Mesa Prayer Breakfast was held on June 28, 2011. The breakfast, organized by District 5 Councilwomen Dina Higgins, promotes spiritual unity and service to the community by bringing business, political, neighborhood and interdenominational faith communities together in prayer for the city.
The breakfast honored eleven Mesa congregations for their commitment to Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest’s Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program (I-HELP). I-HELP provides homeless women shelter, meals and connections to community services. The recognized congregations were First Presbyterian Church, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church, Redemption Church, Living Word Bible Church, First United Methodist Church, City of Grace, Victory Lutheran Church, Fountain of Life, Love of Christ Lutheran Church and Sun Valley Community Church.
These congregations, along with their caring volunteers, partner with Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest to provide single homeless women a safe place to sleep, a nutritious meal, and Community Resources to help them get off the streets permanently.
Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest was also recognized at the breakfast for the time, dedication, and service to the women of I-HELP.
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Aging and Disability Services
Douglas Dispatch on Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest
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I-HELP
Dina Higgins Spirit Award
Mesa I-HELP provides shelter to homeless women
Mesa program for homeless women starting to take off
For months, Mesa's I-Help program for homeless women struggled to get off the ground.
Several nights a week, they would only have one or two women show up asking for shelter for the night.
So organizers went to Paz de Cristo, a soup kitchen where the city's homeless and working poor have dined and developed a sense of family for more than two decades.
The new partnership worked almost immediately.
I-Help, which uses a network of churches to shelter homeless women for the night, is becoming more popular, gaining the trust of women and establishing a clientele, said Traci Gruenberger, vice president of program development and operations for Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, I-Help's administrator.
After a slow start in March, a rotation of seven Mesa and Gilbert churches is now hosting seven to 13 women a night, five nights a week.
And now, another partnership with Save the Family and Mesa's Neighborhood Stabilization Program promises to take I-Help toward the next logical goal by providing housing to get the women off the streets. The city program would use federal stimulus money to buy and renovate two duplexes.
Little things most people take for granted make a big difference to the women who participate in the program, such as having access to a shower a couple of times a week and sleeping on a military-style cot instead of on the ground.
"It's been steadily growing," said Lisa Owens, 49, who has been homeless since January. "This gives me a place I can sleep at night without being harassed by the police. I can sleep in peace. Peace of mind, it's a big thing."
Natasha Lemke, 25, said the program has gained her trust after three weeks of participation.
"You can rely on it. Some churches don't help you," said Lemke, who dropped out of school after ninth grade but hopes to get a general equivalency diploma. She said a lack of education and picking the wrong men have sidetracked her life.
"This is what happens when you rely on other people, not yourself," Lemke said. "I just like the bad boys."
Organizers concede there are two obstacles that block the program of reaching its goal of attracting 15 women per night regularly. Some women don't want to leave homeless men, whom they consider their protectors on the street; and others don't want to go anyplace where drugs and alcohol are not allowed.
Gruenberger said she decided not to allow men, despite the program's slow startup, because she wants to give homeless women the option of getting away from abusive relationships. Some women participating in the program have been domestic violence victims.
"It's just been a matter of a lot of hard work and sticking with our original concept," Gruenberger said. "It took a little bit to get traction, but we are starting to see the need is really there."
Ray Villa, Mesa's neighborhood services director, said the program is becoming a model for how government, non-profits and churches can work together to help a group of needy people who previously had not been served in Mesa.
Mesa offers the East Valley Men's Center for men but had no choice but to direct homeless women to Central Arizona Shelter Services in Phoenix. The idea of serving homeless women first surfaced at an interfaith prayer breakfast hosted by Councilwoman Dina Higgins.
"We're excited. The program has moved very fast for such a short period," Villa said, praising Higgins for her work as a catalyst. "Everyone is working together to meet the needs of these ladies."
Mesa's Neighborhood Stabilization Program has purchased two duplexes using federal stimulus money and is renovating them, he said. The city expects to turn them over to Save the Family, another non-profit that will serve as property manager, in late November.
Lutheran Social Services will handle case management for the women, arranging whatever services they need to avoid homelessness. That could include anything from psychological counseling to job training. The East Valley Bible Church in Gilbert, which served as Mesa I-Help's founding church by donating $20,000 to the new program, will furnish the units. Each two-bedroom unit will house two women.
"Most homeless women have been victims," said Jackie Taylor, Save the Family's CEO. "Probably 90 percent of homeless women have experienced trauma."
She said women staying at the duplexes will be eligible for services offered by Save the Family. The ultimate goal would be to not only get the women off the street, but to reunite them with any estranged children.
Mesa I-Help is adapting a model used successfully in Tempe, where men and women are sheltered by churches. But Tempe has a different social service landscape, with no shelters or soup kitchens.
Stephen Sparks, who manages the Tempe I-Help program for the Tempe Community Action Program, said Mesa has done a good job adopting the model to fit the city's needs. Sparks has served as a mentor for Mesa's program.
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Refugee and Immigration Services
ACCESSING STIMULUS FUNDS
By Sabra Barnett, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest
A group of voluntary agencies in Maricopa County have put together an Employment Working Group, which incorporates a partnership with a children’s hospital, the City of Phoenix, and local community colleges. The Working Group’s success has enabled us to access stimulus money in order to set up new vocational training programs.
In the fall, the local GateWay Community College will be accepting qualified refugees into a Certified Nursing Assistant Program. They’ve reserved 25 slots specifically for our clients, and the program is 100% tuition-free. Stimulus funds will pay for the refugees’ pre-enrollment testing, background checks, drug tests, fingerprint cards, CPR certification, the actual tuition, books, uniforms, shoes and stethoscopes. After the course is finished, clients will receive certification and job placement services for one year. We are currently working to put together similar vocational trainings in caregiving, phlebotomy, and pharmacy technology.
These training and job placement services will build morale, especially among the most well-educated refugees. Increased competition for medium skill jobs (e.g. cashiers, administrative assistants, etc.) has kept some of our best-educated clients in low-skill, entry-level positions, such as janitorial and food service. We hope these trainings will address that issue. Additionally, city job placement services will help lighten the caseload for employment specialists, who don’t always have time for in-depth job searches in clients’ fields of expertise.
Stimulus program assistance ranges from providing funding for language and vocational training (e.g. green jobs and healthcare), to housing assistance, unemployment benefits, and VISTA volunteer recruiting. A fact sheet with resources is available on RefugeeWorks’ website at refugeeworks.org/downloads/recovery.pdf. For further information, contact Sabra Barnett at sbarnett@lss-sw.org.
Click here to download LSS_2009 Spring Update
Volunteer Turns Time into Dollars for Refugees
“The first time I visited the Burmese refugee family, I was very nervous because I knew they didn’t speak English and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. But by my second visit, we figured out ways to communicate and ended up laughing and having a good time together,” said Jill Coughlin, a member of Community of Grace Lutheran Church in Peoria, Arizona.
Community of Grace first co-sponsored a refugee family in 2007 and Jill stepped in to begin weekly visits to the family. In July of 2008 they co-sponsored another family and again Jill was on board. After one year now, Jill’s relationship has developed into a friendship with the family and they call to say hi when she has not been by for a visit. She has spent many hours helping them learn English and they have taught her to speak some Burmese. “It’s been a great learning experience for me as well,” Jill commented. As a result of this relationship, Jill was introduced to other Burmese families and she now is helping them to practice their English. She spends several hours a week working with the refugee families. These hours recently benefited the refugee resettlement program with a volunteer grant award.
Jill is an employee of Wells Fargo and applied for a volunteer service award with her company. Employees who volunteer 25 hours per quarter for a year are able to apply for a grant for the non-profit agency they work with. Jill’s hours easily surpassed that amount. She contacted Donna Buckles, church sponsorship developer for Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest Refugee and Immigration Services Division to say she had a check for $1,000 for the agency. In the application, Jill shared her experiences and made suggestions of ways the money could help refugees.
“I’m so excited to present this check to the agency,” Jill commented. “With all of the current needs of refugees, this money will help several families,” Buckles said. “Partnerships with churches and church volunteers provides assistance on so many levels for our refugees. They play a very, very important role in helping refugees to become self-sufficient and comfortable in American culture, and their friendship with refugees is an added benefit to our clients,” Buckles added.
