Putting College Within the Reach of Homeless Youth

This article tells us how Jessica and other homeless students overcome the hurdle to attend college: Putting College Within the Reach of Homeless Youth . It's hard, because they don't have the support of parents. The fortunate ones get help from organizations who help them navigate through, applying for financial aid, etc. But even if they get there, they face more hurdles, such as housing during breaks, because often the dormitories are shut down during breaks and no special provisions taken for these students who have nowhere else to go, to stay on campus during breaks.

Abolishing Homelessness in Ten Years

There was an interesting article in Christianity Today.

Philip Mangano "has been shaking up the world of homeless outreach by saying that rapid re-housing will abolish chronic homelessness."

Does it really help?

Our church is not having a toy drive or Christmas store where Christmas gift items can be bought for a very low price this year. Why? Because many agencies are having toy drives at this time of the year and every underprivileged family is approached by several of them, so they do get enough toys already. And even though the Christmas store was set up so that the parents and children could browse and buy the items, it still didn't feel real. It still didn't feel like the gift was coming from them, because the items had been donated and sold for only a quarter or so.

People in our community really do need some basic items and help, though. So we have two other projects for the Christmas time. One is a Christmas catalog that contains as its items donations for different projects and items that are needed over Christmas and throughout the year, such school supplies, a donation to send a child to camp, a donation to pay for a computer (or part of it) needed for an underfunded school, contribution to a van needed for neighborhood ministries etc. The other one is a collection of useful items such as shampoo, soap, deodorant, feminine hygiene items, and also jackets, sweaters, T-shirts, etc. for adults. Near the end of the year, bags of supplies will be distributed to needy families that are just scraping by to avoid homelessness.

Another agency I just found out about

Covenant House International is the largest privately-funded agency in the Americas providing shelter and other services to homeless, runaway and throwaway youth.
One of their sites is right here in Los Angeles.

New PO Box

I have a new PO box now. It's the smallest size and will be shared with other projects, so it's important to mention this project ("Mercy and Justice") when sending anything. You can see the new address on the right column.

Documentary movie about the homeless

Today on Montel, I heard about a documentary that a 17 year old girl named Francesca Karle made about the homeless in her community. It looks like the film has already have a great positive impact. The movie is called "On the River's Edge". I want to find that movie and watch it. CBS5 has a link to a clip from the movie in this article online.

Address change

I didn't get enough contributions (or other mail for that matter) in the post office box. So contiuing that expense is not justified. Please send any future contributions to the address in the sidebar instead.

I received one contribution a while ago, by the way, but then I traveled from one place to another and it got mixed up in a big pile of postcards before I could scan it. Sorry! I'll scan it as soon I can find it again after returning from my travels.

I promise, no such thing will happen with future contributions, I will take more care to keep them in a special place.