SWIMMING UPSTREAM

The River street ministry works to build relationships with homeless

By Sue G. Collins

Collecting socks, wet wipes, warm clothes and fresh food for the homeless is, thankfully, not that big of a challenge. The hard work is building relationships and trust with people living on the streets. Living outside of the system.

It’s this understanding and compassion that fuels The River, a social justice arm of the progressive VirginiaHighland Church located at the corner of Virginia Avenue and Ponce Place.

Since its inception last May, David Gillespie and his small team have built relationships with the homeless community that lives at Piedmont and Ralph McGill Parkway in Downtown. They don’t judge. They don’t consider themselves to be better people with purer

Then, get them to believe they don’t have to live on the street. “These people are so beaten down, their dignity has been stripped, their confidence in the world has been shredded,” says Gillespie, who owns his own executive recruitment company in Inman Park and is helping grow The River from his car and church pews. “Then, we want to help them to think about where they want to be: Sober? Employed? Home with family? Living without crack?”

Gillespie holds great hope for continued collaborations with other street ministry groups like the Central Outreach & Advocacy Center (where volunteers help find birth certificates and identification needed to open doors to employment, healthcare and housing) and The Living Room (offering housing,