As promised, we will be blogging about everything that we see, feel and experience here at Embrace. So here is the rundown on our first few weeks.
I think the best place to begin is at the beginning, which for us means what people said when we got our positions here. The initial reactions were positive of course, and then we told them where we would be working and that we would be walking the government housing neighborhoods within the city. It is interesting though, because from our brief time here so far, we have realized that a lot of the people that live in the projects get there in a variety of different ways and for different reasons. It could be that someone lost a job and had no place else to go. We have also met some wonderful women who were victims of domestic violence and had no place to go and no family that would take them in, so they became, in effect, homeless. I think that both of us have really come to see that there are lots of causes for homelessness and how anyone can end up there.
Koni and I both have also really enjoyed working here so far. We have met some really cool people and lots of great kids. Everyday it becomes more clear that people are just people and we have a lot more in common with the homeless population and the people living in public housing than suburban people might realize.
Koni had never seen a project before she started working here. It is kind of hard to know what to expect if you haven’t seen one. She thought it would be in progress since it’s called a project. She was surprised to find lots of little finished houses and apartments lined up on streets that wind around one another just like in every other neighborhood.
I was familiar with the projects, but only to the extent that I volunteered a bit in Mosby Ct. when I was younger. I would never have been exposed to that if I hadn’t had a youth minister who made sure I knew what was out there and how all people in all walks of life live. Even so, Koni and I both were surprised by the number of kids that we have seen outside when they should be in school. It’s pretty easy to spot school-age kids, and we have seen lots of them hanging out long before the school buses come to drop anyone off. In an effort to keep kids in school, the City of Richmond instituted TRAPP five years ago. The basic idea was “to create a visible presence throughout the city to identify and intervene effectively with truants and their family to improve school attendance.” (According to the pilot proposal which you can read here). They decided to target three neighborhoods in which high rates of truancy and crime were a problem, so they chose Mosby, Hillside, and Highland Park. The program is a great idea, but it looks like greater efforts are still needed to make a difference.
I had a really emotional moment on Sunday when Koni and I did our first House Blessing. The Blessings happen once a month, and we do work in the warehouse, help a family pick out furniture, and then move them in and pray with and for them. It’s an amazing experience and something I would recommend to any kind of group that would be willing to be a part of it. At the end, one of the guys who works in the warehouse told his story of addiction and recovery. It really affected me because I have a family member who struggles with addiction, and his words gave me comfort that I can’t fix it, and the hope to pray and be prepared if he decides to come around and make a change some day. According to the Mayo clinic, 19.5 million people over the age of 12 use illegal drugs in the United States, so I know lots of people are in the same position, but I think we don’t talk about it enough.
So that’s pretty much it for our first few weeks here. We are going to do our best to update on our experiences weekly, so be on the look out for more from us!