Baltimore Muslim Vies For Funding from Pepsi for Social Service Project Written by Zunara Naeem, Muslim Link Staff Writer Wednesday, 21 July 2010 13:07
A Baltimore based Muslim social services organization is trying to spread its work nationally by entering a widely-contested competition for the best community building ideas run by soft-drink giant Pepsi-Cola. In an announcement by Imam Hassan Amin, the Executive Director of the Muslim Social Services Agency (MSSA) in Baltimore, Maryland, the MSSA submitted their program idea “Project H.O.M.E (Housing, Opportunity, Medical, Employment)” to the Pepsi Refresh Project, as one of the 1102 competing to be considered “refreshing ideas that will change the world.” The competition is one amongst a recent plethora of do-good programs designed by rich and famous companies, like Pepsi, for establishing a platform to help others put their compassion to work. Imam Amin’s idea is aimed at providing housing and job training to the homeless, especially homeless women. Pepsi Refresh lists three deliverables for Imam Amin’s project should it get funded: finding permanent housing for 60 families; placing or training 60 individuals in jobs; and setting up after care services for settled individuals for up to one year. Pepsi has been running the competition since February 1, 2010, accepting submissions from schools, non-profit organizations, museums, community centers, and individuals. Competitors send their ideas from the 1st until the 15th of every month to Pepsi Refresh, during which a board of ‘ambassadors’ with backgrounds in health, education, social services, environment, and the arts choose about 1000 ideas. All chosen ideas are posted on the Pepsi Refresh Project’s competition website for public voting under categories like health, neighborhoods, education, arts and culture, food and shelter, and the planet. This month’s competition will end July 31, 2010. The competition will open again August 1st. So far, the Pepsi Refresh Project has granted around $ 1.3 million every month, $250,000 for the top-two most voted for ideas that applied for that allotted grant, and $50,000, $25,000, or $5000, for the ten most popular ideas battling for those respective grants. Over $4M has been granted to 96 of the competition’s winning projects since the competition began. Project H.O.M.E, the only Muslim-led project for this month’s competition, has applied for the quarter million dollar grant. If they receive enough votes by the end of the month and win the grant, Imam Hassan Amin said $200,000 will go towards establishing the project and $50,00 as salary to the workers involved. Ideas that do well in the competition vary, as one of May’s top-two placers was an education program on distributing abduction prevention material to families, while the other was a youth-organized food and shelter project for building foster homes. The Pepsi Refresh website presents a breakdown of the competition and where the prize money is going. Project H.O.M.E was placed in “The Planet” section by Pepsi Refresh, but Imam Amin is trying to get the project recategorized under “Food and Shelter”. In a study conducted by the National Coalition for the Homeless, in 50 cities, virtually every city contains far more homeless people than spaces available at shelters and transitional housing.
1/4
Baltimore Muslim Vies For Funding from Pepsi for Social Service Project Written by Zunara Naeem, Muslim Link Staff Writer Wednesday, 21 July 2010 13:07
In addition, from the 3.5 million homeless in the United States, 36% of the children representing that statistic live in shelters, and children and families are the largest growing segment of homeless in the nation, according to a 2002 study by the National Coalition for the Homeless. That is twice the amount of poverty for any other age group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty rates in the United States have also spiked from 12.5 percent in 2007, to 13.2 percent in 2008, precursors to a long string of disturbing numbers after an economic recession hit the U.S. in 2007. In Baltimore, over 3000 men, women, and children can be found on the streets on any given night. In the United States as a whole, over fourteen thousand people sleep on the streets each night. Lack of affordable housing and poverty are the biggest factors driving families onto the streets according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. In addition, 56% of cities surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors in 2000 agree that domestic abuse is a primary cause of homelessness. Project H.O.M.E is an extension of the MSSA, an already well established social services agency. The MSSA has been offering aid in the Baltimore region since 2003. So far, it has given aid and support for around 3000 people, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Imam Amin says that the agency has helped those who have been “evicted, stranded, are in need of medicine and/or clothing, counseling services for drug abuse, domestic violence, or just a safe haven...until they are independent from their abuse and safe from their abuser” as well as countless other social services, depending on the needs of applicants. What makes Project H.O.M.E different from the MSSA and other projects like it, however, is that it will be offering those same services on a national level, with a 1-800 number, website, and a central headquarters called “Muslim A Center (MAC)”. For the MSSA to achieve this goal, they need votes. “It would be helpful,” said Br. Amin, “to get as many people on board to make these dreams come true for other people.” Project H.O.M.E also hopes to establish a masjid with an intake person who will verify applications filled out by people needing the agency’s services, and send it to MAC where they will again verify the application. After approval, funds would be sent directly to the final recipients – in the case of housing, funds would be sent directly to land lords. The masjid will also provide a 24-hour service “because people need help 24 hours a day,” states Imam Amin. Imam Amin also aims to renovate a building or complex for “services that people need...like drug help, job training, [and] health care needs.” Imam Amin figures it will be like a “one stop shop for all their needs and cares.” He went on to say, “We just want to improve people’s lives… [and help] them do better for
2/4
Baltimore Muslim Vies For Funding from Pepsi for Social Service Project Written by Zunara Naeem, Muslim Link Staff Writer Wednesday, 21 July 2010 13:07
themselves”. When asked about her experience with the MSSA, Sr. Asma Hanif, the executive director of Muslimat An-Nisaa, a women’s shelter that also operates in Baltimore, Maryland, said, “They’ve helped individuals and moved on….The main thing is is that they want to maintain their dignity, instead of calling them up and reminding them about it [problems] over again.” The Muslim Link spoke to Abdulmuhsiy Abdurrahman Khayr, a Baltimore area Muslim aided by the MSSA. After injuring his back, Abdulmuhsiy found himself without a job and mounting medical bills. MSSA provided Khayr with financial resources to help him get through that difficult period. Abulmuhsiy said that the organization was very “astute as far as needs being legitimized” and has a “strict adherence, even if Muslim, to verify sources.” The agency’s policy to maintain that applicants were in the situation they described themselves to be in was one the brother “admired very much.” “They cross their t’s and dot their i’s and put themselves out there in doing that,” he went on to say. Sr. Asma made similar comments: “[The] organization doesn’t cater to those who use and abuse a system.” She continued however, saying that the organization “provide[s] the gap from being homeless to becoming sufficient.” The Muslim Services Social Agency also deals with delivering aid and support to not only individuals, but organizations as well. Women’s Affairs of Al-Mumtahinah Home Inc, a non-profit organization that provides social services to Muslim and non-Muslim alike, has been operating since 2007, beginning at Masjid Al-Haqq. Since its start-up in 2007, the shelter has has helped over a hundred people, and runs an all-volunteer staff. The organization received monetary funds from Imam Amin to cover the expenses of items such as fire extinguishers and alarms so that they may pass their inspection. Of Imam Amin, Sr. Nadia McIntosh, the organization’s President, said, “He is a true supporter of women and Muslims.” She went on to say that the Imam was the shelter’s “go-to person for counseling services.” If the MSSA’s noble endeavor to establish Project H.O.M.E on a country-wide scale is successful, Allah Willing, it will become the first national social services agency dedicated to Muslim services and concerns, says Imam Amin in an email. The project will also be on par with some of today’s successful Christian and Jewish social services agencies. As of this report, Project H.O.M.E is #256 for the grant the MSSA is hoping for. In contrast, “Save the Music”, an “Education’s” program by the Hip Hop Academy for artists to have a business school, is #1 in the $250K bracket, and has been, for over two weeks. Number 2 is the “Complete the Dream” project which works by building “Legacy Gardens” for the community; it can be found under “Neighborhoods” on Pepsi Refresh’s website. Only the top two projects get funded.
3/4
Baltimore Muslim Vies For Funding from Pepsi for Social Service Project Written by Zunara Naeem, Muslim Link Staff Writer Wednesday, 21 July 2010 13:07
When asked why the MSSA decided to extend into Project H.O.M.E, Br. Amin expressed, “It’s just a really good feeling…to help others. Really, you live it.” Imam Amin is a former principal and volunteer social worker at the Islamic Community School of Baltimore. He is also a Licensed Graduate Social Worker in the State of Maryland, and has over 25 years of experience in social work.
4/4