My name is Lauren Hodson, and I am currently serving as an Americorps Member at Family Promise of Grand Rapids. Family Promise partners with families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless by helping them get back on their feet so they can create a stable lifestyle for their children. We focus on providing hospitality and keeping families together in a time of crisis. We also strive to be a source of hope and encouragement for families as they create an achievable vision and develop a strong foundation for self-sufficiency. 93% of the families we serve find permanent housing at the end of their stay in our shelter, and 91% of those families maintain that housing for at least a year. I feel very blessed to be serving at such an incredible agency with staff members who are so full of love and hope for the families who stay with us.
Before this year, I had already been significantly involved in various volunteer and employment roles where I was serving vulnerable populations, both the homeless and the severely mentally ill. Because of these past service experiences, I thought I was very well educated about homelessness before the start of this Americorps year. But, I have found myself startled by the prevalence of family homelessness in Michigan and surprised at how little I actually knew. I didn’t fully realize the extent of the problem, how easy it is for a family living at the poverty level to slip into homelessness, and what a huge impact this situation has on the children.
Here are some of the statistics of which I was not fully aware of:
- 53% of the entire homeless population is children and their families.
- Over 22,000 children were homeless in Michigan last year, 7,000 of these children are under the age of 5 years old, and over 2,000 of these children live in Kent County, where I live.
- 7 years old is the average age of a homeless child.
- The central intake office for any individual experiencing a housing crisis in Grand Rapids receives calls from 12 families EVERY SINGLE WEEK for which there is no space for them to receive shelter in all of Grand Rapids.
These statistics are heartbreaking, but they are even more heartbreaking when the statistics connect with the flesh - When I see a young single mom with two kids entering our shelter program after spending the last two nights in a Wal-Mart parking lot, trying to protect her kids and keep them warm by pushing them around in a shopping cart all night. It’s the story of a mom with two beautiful kids who has lost everything in a house fire, has no family supports, and is now homeless because she had no renters insurance. It’s these stories that light a fire in me to do my best work here at Family Promise. It’s these stories that remind me why I am not only committing myself to doing a year of service through Americorps, but why I am committing to a lifetime of doing my best to be an agent of compassion and justice in this world.
At times, it can be hard as an Americorps member – Usually we don’t have a ton of experience in the field and the realities of what we are faced with can be overwhelming. But, my hope for myself and everyone else in the program is that when we hear the stories that break our hearts, when we come up against difficult experiences, and we are unsure of our abilities to make a difference amongst such daunting societal problems, that we are able to keep the bigger picture in mind and remember why we signed up to do this work. We will not get rid of the issues, but we can make a difference in small ways every single day, and that is worth it.
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