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years ago we set out on a campaign to turn spare change into awareness and practical solutions for our community’s homeless children and families in crisis. We wanted to let everyone, especially our children, know that they can make a tangible difference while providing a practical solution for mothers and children who find themselves living in their car or on the street during the holidays. This year saw many new and fun ideas for schools, churches and businesses to incorporate The Little Christmas House, including a PJs and Pancakes Breakfast with First UMC, a bike drive from the students of the Cardinal Gibbons High School Key Club and an Evening of HOPE at American National Bank, the sponsor bank of The Little Christmas House! Thank you, for helping us work towards a time where no child is forced to sleep in their car or on the streets of our community.
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21-year-old mom with three young girls, were staying outside by the doorstep of the church where they attended. It was no place for a young family at night. There were no STORY other family or friends that the mom could turn to‌ INSIDE:
7th ANNUAL PRO-AM GOLF TOURNAMENT
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”[ROMANS 15:13 - NIV] There are times in the midst of life when you can become overwhelmed with the pain Robin Martin and suffering all around. Times EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR when you find yourself facing personal trials, pain, tears, and loss. The walls of life seem to grow higher and thicker than your ability to climb and leap. These times lead to a sinking feeling like things will never change or get better, and in some cases actually get worse. The end of the tunnel doesn’t lead to light, but a black empty wall. In these times, you fail to remember the reason that you are fighting so hard. When a person is faced with surmounting despair, the only remedy is hope. A hope that is greater than the current reality and speaks of a future that holds promise. Recently, a friend shared these words about the power of hope and I was deeply moved and reminded of why we launched HOPE South Florida.
“The Christian life is a life lived in hope: hope for restoration and rebirth; hope that a broken past filled with pain can be a steppingstone instead of a roadblock; hope for a present overflowing with unlimited forgiveness, unconditional love and unbridled joy; hope for a future abundant with blessings of wisdom, peace, joy, happiness and truth; hope for a future not filled with worldly wealth but with a wealth of the Spirit; hope for an eternity where sorrow and pain is a thing of the past and the God of the universe eagerly waits to embrace us.” by Trena Reed. HOPE is the only thing that tells us that today is not the end of the story. That our future holds more and that there is a possibility to see change, find healing, and even make a difference in this world. We not only find HOPE, but each of us can be HOPE. For the many of you who have been a part of making HOPE a reality, I thank you. This last year and a half has been an amazing time in the life of HOPE South Florida. During this time, we have been able to add two housing projects, Rio House and Dave’s House, and launched two additional housing programs, HOPE4Families and HOPE4Vets. Collectively, these programs added housing for an additional 74 households. All of the Pillars, Partners, and Friends of HOPE South Florida made this possible. It is with your help that we will continue to provide HOPE to the thousands of lives we touch every week.
7th ANNUAL PRO-AM GOLF TOURNAMENT
Join the PGA Pro Tour, The City of Fort Lauderdale and HOPE South Florida Monday, May 19, 2014
REGISTER NOW! The 7th Annual Pro-Am Golf Tournament, ForeHOPE, which benefits homeless families and children served through HOPE South Florida, will take place at Coral Ridge Country Club with guest PGA Pro Tour players joining each foresome. ForeHOPE reaches out to the business and faith community to create a way for each person to get involved and provide assistance to those in need.
Contact Stephanie Lateulade 954.566.2311 or www.hopesouthflorida.org/foreHOPE
We believe that we are called to live generously and invest in the place we call home. After all, this is our community. Uncommon Generosity focuses on our community’s growing movement of churches, businesses and neighborhoods collective efforts on ending street homelessness for families, and caring for those individuals who are homeless. Pillars, Partners, and Friends
of HOPE South Florida commit to investing in the lives of single mothers and children in our community and ensuring the homeless having housing and restorative community through loving support and shared meals. Give HOPE Today!
Learn more about Uncommon Generosity on our new website: HOPESouthFlorida.org
Pillars of HOPE are strategic partners that share a strong affiliation and alignment with HOPE South Florida. Pillars play a unique role in the leadership, organizational development and continued community impact.
Investment:: $10,000+annually Partners of HOPE are the foundation that sustains and empowers our continued impact in the community. Partners align their time and resources to collectively accomplish the organizational goals.
Investment:: $1,000+annually Friends of HOPE are the heartbeat that believe in our collective work and serve alongside our programs. Friends invest their time and effort to directly care for the families, children and individuals who are homeless.
Investment:: $100+annually
Faith In Action received a call from a young 21-year-old mom with three young girls, ages 2, 5, and 6. At that time, the mom and the three young girls were staying outside by the doorstep of the church where they attended. It was no place for a young family to be staying, especially when nighttime would fall. There were no other family or friends that the mom could turn to, and the church had provided as much as they could to keep the family safe, and to keep the kids in daycare and school.
The family was taken in by Faith In Action and was provided with short-term crisis shelter with the
partnership of two churches that housed the family over the next two weeks. The mom was so determined to start working again that she was hired at Wendy’s within day 3 of being in Faith In Action. The mom was given a renewed strength to keep pressing on, not only through the new job, but also through the support of the two churches that she stayed with. The volunteers that stayed with the family gave so much emotional and spiritual support to the young family that you could see the sadness the family faced on day 1 turn into smiles and laughs by the time they were ready to move on to the next step.
Keys to Life 19 years ago, Christ Church United Methodist housed it’s first family – a mother, father, and five month-old baby who had no place to spend the night. Using rooms at various hotels, paid for by volunteers, God’s people began to put their faith into action and respond to our community’s growing homeless family population. Fast forward to 2014 and you’ll find that the heart of HOPE South Florida still lies with partnering alongside the local church to provide housing solutions and support services to homeless individuals, children, and families.
The family is now staying
at one of Broward County’s emergency shelters and will continue to receive guidance in figuring out what the next step will be for them as a young family.
Because someone like you gave hope…
In 2013 we were able to provide 239 families and 498 children with housing, share over 19,250 meals with individuals and provided 102 children with free or subsidized childcare! For these families, living in their car or on the street is no longer their reality – they found HOPE
Currently there are over 150 families, moms with children – dads with children, on a waiting list to receive crisis shelter. These families have nowhere else to go and cannot get into local shelters due to the lake of space and availability
Thankfully, HOPE South Florida continues to partner with churches to provide temporary crisis housing for homeless families in need. Recently, Keys to Life Church in Miramar contacted us wanting to learn more and get involved. After learning that an average of 15-20 families report literally sleeping in their car or on the streets of our community each and every night, they knew they had to respond. After taking this need to their leadership team, they decided to give HOPE South Florida complete use of two apartments owned by the church for the purpose of increasing crisis housing for families during their time of crisis. After a few service project days to clean and lightly renovate the units, our Faith-In-Action crisis housing program will begin to house two families who would otherwise be living in their car or on the street! Thank you Pastor Arthor Jackson and all of those at Keys to Life Church for making our mission of providing hope to the hopeless and homes for the homeless a reality once again!
shared meals no reservations required for individual volunteer servers. Volunteer groups should call ahead to reserve a date, 954.566.2311
Mondays (Weekly) ST CHRISTOPHER’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
318 NW 6th Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale Meal and fellowship starts at 6:00
Tuesdays (Weekly) FIRST LUTHERAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH
441 NE 3rd Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale Set-up starts at 5:45 while service is underway. Meal and fellowship starts at 6:15
Thursdays (Weekly) NEW LIFE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH/HOPE CENTRAL
1100 North Andrews Ave., Ft. Lauderdale Set up starts at 5:45 while service is underway Meal and fellowship starts at 6:15
Sundays (Weekly) 5th AVENUE TEMPLE CHURCH OF GOD
211 NW 5th Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale Church service starts at 5:30 – Meal immediately afterwards
(Last Wednesday of each Month) 5th AVENUE TEMPLE CHURCH OF GOD
I
serve people (children and adults) who are homeless with HOPE South Florida because I love the homeless population. I lived a very comfortable and enjoyable childhood and because of that comfort, I was a very wasteful child. I can remember taking one or two bites of food and then throwing the rest of it away, as though that was normal behavior. I began to appreciate the value of money and the value of food when my mother lost her job; she no longer made the salary that kept me feeling “comfortable.” During my senior year of college, I took an alternative spring break with a team who worked with an
organization to build and maintain community gardens. These were a necessity for the neighborhoods that lacked grocery stores and left the residents without proper nutrition. My walk with Jesus was changed FOREVER. I was able to build beautiful relationships with the people whom were homeless. These experiences sparked my passion to serve the homeless community. They are strong people who all have different stories and whom all come from different walks of life. They NEED a sense of community and I am always excited when they have opportunities to grow in relationship with others, but most importantly with Jesus Christ! They live a very hard life that can be filled with tons of negativity; they need positive relationships with positive people. When I am able to sit down to listen, talk, and pray with them, it means the world to them. People who are homeless not only need the BREAD of life, they also need physical food, clothing, and toiletries. As a servant to the homeless, I am thankful that God allows me to meet their needs in this way.
211 NW 5th Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale Church service starts at 6:00 – Meal immediately afterwards
Photo: Asia Courtesy of our partner, Community Christian Church
K-SAIL LAUNCH & BLESSING
Recently, HOPE South Florida (HSF) had the privilege of hosting the K-Sail (Kids Sailing Into Their Future) Blessing & Dedication Event at the Lauderdale Yacht Club with an open invitation to all donors and supporters of HSF. K-Sail is a new skills program for children whose families have experienced homelessness or are, based on family history, “at risk.” Children in the program are introduced to the life skills of problem solving, teamwork, and collaboration. The evening included a blessing from Paster Fawn Mikel, of Christ Church United Methodist, over the renovated Columbia 28 sailboat, L’Avenir (the Future) with Allen Reesor, of Metrix Research Group, sharing how the program came to be. Through partnerships in the yachting industry and the generous donations from Marina Bay Marina & Resort and Marina Mile Yachting Center, the boat has already been out with a group for a pilot run. Children participating in the pilot run felt empowered and gained confidence after only four lessons and were able to successfully sail the sailboat under supervision! One of the young men to attend the pilot group, Tariq, took a moment to share about his experiences and accomplishments through K-Sail. Through his time in the program he has found renewed confidence in himself and went from D’s and C’s in school to the A-B honor roll and shared that he is now even helping his mother with the dishes! Tariq’s mother also shared her enthusiasm for the program and was thrilled that he would have access to such a unique opportunity.
“I really wanted to let you know that the K-Sail program is awesome and that Tariq and the other boys love it. Once again, I thank you & appreciate you. It has also allowed the other mothers and I to collaborate and come together to help one another. Not only does this program teach teamwork to all the boys but to us, the mothers, as well. Thank you so much, again, for everything. I am very humbled and I feel very blessed to be apart of this program.” – Mother of Tariq
BUILD HOPE : : BUILD HOUSING : : BUILD COMMUNITY
toda y at E P O H e Giv rg hflorida.o t u o s e p o h
HOPE South Florida is a Christian-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, operating since 1995, with the mission to hope for the homeless and hurting through services and partnerships with the Christian community. Serving as the lead organization in a network of partner churches and organizations, we are working together to provide a holistic Christian response to homelessness in our community. Over the years we have provided emergency shelter, housing assistance, and support services to thousands of homeless families throughout Broward County.
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