Together We Made a Change!

Thank you to everyone who donated to and participated in Sleep Out Saturday 2011!  Working together, over 1,500 kids, teens and adults raised thousands of dollars to help the homeless families in Bridge Communities' Transitional Housing Program cross the bridge to self-sufficiency.  We couldn't have done it without you!

You slept in boxes.  You slept in cars.  You slept in tents.  You held bake sales.  You held garage sales.  You went door to door collecting donations.  You sent emails encouraging people to donate.  You told your friends and family about your mission.  You encouraged them to get involved.

YOU MADE A CHANGE!

You - our Program Partners, our donors, our supporters - are the reason behind Bridge's success.

It's never too late to get involved.  To find out how you can help homeless families in DuPage County throughout the year, or to make a donation, please visit Bridge Communities' web site.

THANK YOU!

Learn Fundraising Tips from a Real Sleep Out Saturday STAR!

Brittney Wells was only eight years old the first time she participated in Sleep Out Saturday last year. Her mom and dad – Karen and Rundy – had learned about Sleep Out Saturday when her mom spoke at a Bridge Communities luncheon. The family decided to participate in the sleep out to help raise funds and awareness to help homeless families in DuPage County.

“Having a goal really motivated me,” Brittney recalls. “And after I found out that the average age of a homeless person is eight years old, and that’s how old I was, I wanted to help out.”

The determined fourth grader went door to door, asking neighbors for donations. When Brittney surpassed her original $500 goal, she quickly adjusted her aim toward $800…and then $1,000. In all, Brittney raised $1,076 to help Bridge Communities’ Transitional Housing Program!

“At first it was kind of shocking to hear that the average age of a homeless child in DuPage County,” Brittney shared. “It really motivated me to help and go around and collect money.

“Last year, [sleeping out] really helped me to understand how families facing homelessness felt when they had no place to stay and it’s cold out. It felt kind of life changing. It made me look at homelessness from a whole new perspective.

“I really enjoy it and wanted to donate money to help the homeless. I really like to help people,” Brittney says with a smile.

Beaming mom Karen Wells couldn’t be more proud.

“It was definitely a life-changing experience, to say the least,” she grinned.

With confidence from last year’s fundraising efforts, Brittney has set her sights on an even loftier goal for 2012: $2,000; her family’s total goal is $5,000.

“Donating money and helping out, that is a way of life for us,” says Brittney’s dad, Rundy. “We need our children to understand that and to help out. We will continue to volunteer for great causes like that of the Bridge Communities. We need to expose our kids, especially because we are so blessed.”

You’re probably wondering how an active, nine year old, full-time student hopes to raise $2,000. Brittney’s got a plan well under way.

“Last year I went around my neighborhood knocking on doors, asking people to donate,” Brittney explains. “This year, I had a yard sale, a bake sale, and a movie night…and I was able to raise over $500 [so far].” She started fundraising in the summer, and with a few weeks left to go before Sleep Out Saturday on November 5th, Brittney’s confident she will reach – and maybe even surpass – her goal.

If nine year old Brittney can do it, so can you! Get creative with your Sleep Out Saturday fundraising. Or follow her lead – clean out your closets and hold a garage sale, get a few friends together and host a bake sale, charge admission for a special family fun night. If you’re creative, make and sell crafts. Create pledge challenges among friends to generate a competitive giving spirit. If you are already part of a registered Group, you can create your own fundraising page within that group. If you haven’t already registered, you can register as an individual Sleep Out Star.

The opportunities are endless, and the need is real. Through Sleep Out Saturday, you can MAKE A CHANGE in the lives of homeless families in DuPage County. Please DO.

Register. Donate. Make a Change. http://www.sleepoutsaturday.org/

Questions? Contact Jennie Gates at (630) 545-0610 ext. 19 or jennie.gates@bridgecommunities.org.

Text to Give Your Support to Sleep Out Saturday

Want to support Sleep Out Saturday, Bridge Communities’ largest awareness and fundraiser, but find yourself short on money or time?

Text BRIDGE to 20222, and you’ll instantly donate $10 to your favorite charity – Bridge Communities. It’s quick and easy, allowing you to make a change in someone’s life with a few taps of your keypad.

If you’re feeling even more generous, go to http://www.sleepoutsaturday.org/ to register yourself or your group to participate and run your own mini fundraising campaign! Or check out the other groups and individuals who are sleeping out and pledge to their campaigns.

With one small step, you can MAKE A CHANGE in the lives of homeless families in DuPage County!

A Pastor's Perspective

Good Shepherd Church’s Pastor Glen Wagner reflects on Sleep Out Saturday

Good Shepherd Church members
prepare for Sleep Out Saturday

Last year was our first year for Sleep Out Saturday. I think it will be our first of many. We had about 80 kids and about 20 adults. As a church, we are oriented to getting out and what we would say being the hands of feet of Jesus, so our church is very involved into rebuilding Aurora, sending people on mission trips, Hesed House... Sometimes we get 20 people involved, sometimes we can get 300 people involved. So [Sleep Out Saturday] is right in the middle zone.

I wouldn’t say I slept out – I would say I was out (laughingly)!

I think I probably did get about 30 minutes of sleep, which was interesting, because I thought about, “How do people do this day in and day out?” Sooner or later, everybody has to get some sleep, whether you’re homeless or not.

…actually laying down and going to sleep, I had this big green tarp that I wrapped myself into a sleeping bag and pulled the tarp over. You can hear everything, and you can feel every gust of wind, and it just wasn’t easy getting to sleep, but I was out there trying. You know, I was on a little pad, and had a sleeping bag, and had this tarp that I rolled up in. Some of them have tents, some have boxes, and I have seen some homeless people who don’t have either one of those.

Sleeping Out

I was moved by 80 high school kids saying, “Yes, I will willingly give up my Saturday because I want to learn about this…I want to learn about something.” That always moves me when kids take something seriously like that when they don’t have to; that’s really cool.

We had adults going around the parking lot for security, and realized that everything we’re doing, though we’re sleeping out, we’re still doing things that most homeless people don’t.

Most homeless people do not have a security guard walking around their tent, so about every hour I was learning three or four things…

We had a couple of families that did this as a family – Mum, Dad, 2 or 3 kids, younger kids – and throughout the night, Mum or Dad had to wake up to find the bathroom which we provided inside the church, and I thought, “OK, if you’re homeless where do you go to the bathroom?”



Even kids can make a change

 Then in the morning to see all these people stumbling around, looking for a place to brush their teeth and comb their hair…so literally 12 hours of immersion in this experience, and you realize that this is radically different from anything; there’s a whole list of things to be without, not just a roof, so it just sort of tears you up.

You know, it was tough and also good. As a church, we try and do things that connect with real people and try to be kind of authentic, and if there are loose edges, that’s just part of life; we don’t try and box it up. So I said, “Well, there are some homeless people who are employed and they have to get up the next morning and go to work.” So I thought, “OK, I’m going to get up and go to work,” and I led two services here, and I kind of prepared my message between 5 a.m. and 9 o’clock, and I think I said that morning, “I don’t know how this is going to come out; it might sound like the ramblings of a crazy man, as I haven’t had too much sleep, but here’s what I was thinking.” We were in the series on God’s Tapestry and how he weaves throughout our lives, and my particular topic that morning was the hiddeness of God. So, it was appropriate to lay there during the night and think, “Yeah, where’s God for the average homeless person? How does God work in something like this? Where is God in this?” So, that’s what I tried to talk about.

Sleep Out Saturday was very moving…it made a major impact, and it rippled throughout the church, and many people caught the vision, and this year I think we will have more people out there, and we really want to build on that, because yes, it made a huge impact on the kids.

Could you do it?
Could you NOT do it?

I don’t think I could not sleep out. One of the strategies for me, I didn’t just do it because I have such a great big heart; I also did it because it helps identify with the rest of the group that’s part of it. I was able to say I was out there, and for the kids it was important for the kids to say Pastor Glen was out there with us.

I wouldn’t miss it this year because it just taught me a lot and in the process it taught me a lot of things. This is not a Republican problem, a Democratic problem, a Christian problem, this is a human problem, and if we are Christians, part of what that means is to do things out of love for people you might not even know, so this gives us an opportunity to do something that might change something.

It started out fun, and it started out as a cool community thing to do, and then seeing a couple of groups in their cardboard boxes praying together and kind of talking … seeing their hearts transformed, and then to see those same kids sharing at the microphone and saying, this was really life transforming. Just to see the process of people’s lives transforming before your eyes, I will never get tired of that.

The other thing was actually waking up and going to work. And I think there are some homeless people who are working but they still can’t get out of their homelessness, so how do you do that for 5, 6, 7 days a week, because I was tired, I was a little bit angry, not at anyone in particular just there was just this little anger thing. To get up on this stage and try to minister to people and want to shake people, and then realize, “Stop it, stop it, just 24 hours ago you didn’t have a clue either,” so being in the moment when you’ve learned something and you want to help other people catch that vision and realize you have to do that slowly, thoughtfully, lovingly to see in my own heart barriers to what I didn’t see 24 hours before I started, it was a major “Ah ha!”

I would say as carefully as I can [to other ministers who won’t do Sleep Out Saturday] that it’s spiritual malpractice not to do this. It’s bad. Jesus regularly got out of his comfort zone. He broke ethnic barriers, age barriers, gender barriers, theological barriers to move out to include people into his radius of care, and for us to be in the suburbs, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and realize that maybe 1 out of 20, 1 out of 10 people around us are experiencing something like that and not doing something about that is really saying I think I want to put blinders on, and any church that does that…

You Can Make a Change!

I can’t think of a better way to keep your church passionate, loving, caring, to keep your hearts tender toward God, than to have your heart broken by the things that break God’s heart. I can’t think of a better way to do that than to say to folks, “Let’s grab your sleeping bags and let’s sleep in the parking lot on Saturday night.” Because not one of the 100 people had anything bad to say. Every single one of them said, wow, that was hard, inconvenient, and I’m so glad I did it, it changed my life.

If churches are in the life changing business then to avoid this is not a good thing. It’s doable. November is peak busy season for churches. You’re just getting ready to head into Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas and all that stuff. We were super busy, but because we did Sleep Out, it added something to our message for the next several weeks, months, it helped transform ministries. It brought vision in.

Jesus said you’ve got to care for the least of these, and I can’t think of a better example.

Sleep Out Saturday. Make a change.

How Homelessness Happens

Justyn

Nine years ago, Belinda Bowen and her two sons, Justyn and Jordyn, were homeless, living in hotels, living with friends -- and even living in her car. She did not foresee that one day she would be speaking publicly about homelessness: a word all-too-familiar to her just years ago.

Belinda was known as “the caregiver” of her family, taking care of her relatives, her kids, her household. Within three years, she felt like she lost it all. Her parents and three aunts all became ill, and Belinda cared for each of them until their deaths.

In the meantime, Belinda learned she had Type II Diabetes. She was also caring for her two sons, both of whom were constantly in the hospital because of heart illness. With so much going on, “It was hard to keep a job,” she said.

Jordyn

While jobs came and went, Belinda’s finances tightened. She was evicted from her apartment and, for several months, she and her sons stayed wherever they could, spending nights in hotels, in their car, and with friends.

“I felt like I had failed everybody,” she said. “I failed my boys as a mom, not being able to provide an adequate home for them. I was so disappointed and ashamed.”

Through all her struggles, however, she never lost her faith. In 2003, a friend told Belinda about Bridge Communities. Within two months, Belinda and her sons were accepted into Bridge’s Transitional Housing Program, found a church to sponsor them, and were provided an apartment to call home.

“It was God’s way of lifting us up and placing us where He knew we needed to be,” she reflected.

Belinda recalled her counselor asking her to come see an apartment that they might be able to provide for her, and, when she arrived, she was greeted with a “Welcome Home” basket and the apartment keys.

“I will never forget that day,” she said. “Words can’t describe the looks on my sons’ faces when they found out we would have a place to live.”

During her time with Bridge Communities, Belinda developed a close relationship with her mentors and case manager. She was deeply touched by the love they showed to Justyn, Jordyn and her. Almost immediately, this motivated her to give back; Belinda organized an outreach community, in which local women gathered to cook meals for the homeless.

Belinda graduated from Bridge Communities’ Transitional Housing Program after two years.

“Bridge will not only have a place in my heart, but a place in my life,” Belinda said. “I share my story with everyone. I have friends who hear it and donate to this organization, and I also have friends who hear it and are inspired to seek help like I did.”



A new life for Belinda and her boys

Belinda had always dreamed of living in a three bedroom home with a front yard. Now, with help from her Bridge case manager and a local church, Belinda has accomplished this dream.
Belinda and her sons, both of whom currently attend college, shared their story of their journey through homelessness during past Sleep Out Saturdays; you can experience their story online at http://youtu.be/mFFbaIDdF50. 

One year after graduating from the Bridge program, Belinda and her sons did their own “Sleep Out Saturday” and brought blankets and pillows to sleep in their car for the night.

“Not long ago, we thought our car was all we thought we’d know for a long time,” she said. “When we got in the car to ‘Sleep Out,’ we were appreciative of the purpose of Bridge and all they had done for us.”

Now a career woman and volunteer, Belinda shares her story with others as a motivational speaker. If you are interested in inviting Belinda to speak with your group, please contact Jennie at jennie.gates@bridgecommunities.org. 

Join us at the SOS Rally on November 5th at 505 Crescent Blvd. in downtown Glen Ellyn. The Rally is open to the public and free of charge.

Want to do more? Enroll your group or family in Sleep Out Saturday. It will be a life changing experience for you, and for the families you help. To learn more, visit the Sleep Out Saturday web site or contact Jennie at jennie.gates@bridgecommunities.org.

Interview with a Homeless Advocate

Diane Nilan is passionately committed to giving homelessness a face and a voice. Diane is the founder of HEAR US Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to giving voice and visibility to homeless children and youth. She travels across the United States to raise awareness of and sensitivity to homelessness to inspire others to take action to ease and end it.

Bridge Communities was fortunate to spend a few minutes with Diane earlier this week to discuss issues surrounding homelessness and how she feels Sleep Out Saturday can make an impact.

Bridge Communities: What do you think is the biggest misconception about the homeless?
Diane Nilan: Without a doubt, the biggest misconception about homelessness is the lack of understanding lack of awareness of that. Everywhere I go, the stereotype of the bedraggled guy on the street corner is predominant. That is exactly what everyone’s perception of homelessness is. Sadly, that’s one that people are OK with dismissing. Certainly when audiences find out that women, children and youth are every bit as homeless as the guys on the street corners, it really registers as a shock to most people.

BC: How do you think we can change people’s opinions about the homeless?
DN: The one thing that I’ve seen that has made a profound change in peoples’ perceptions is when they see the faces and hear the voices of people that are experiencing homelessness, which is at the heart of what I’ve been doing for the past 6+ years – to let people see the videos* “My Own Four Walls” and “on the edge,” because they hear from the experts. They realize that the misconceptions they’ve had have kept them from understanding the scope of homelessness that hits every community across the country. The one thing we can do is get faces and voices out to be seen and heard.

BC: What are the biggest obstacles in accomplishing this?
DN: Sadly, obstacles include the lack of awareness in Congress and in our State Houses about the breadth and depth of homelessness. Most of the legislators I’ve talked to over the years are totally unaware of homelessness as it affects families and youth. That is a huge barrier. Within our communities, the elected officials all the way down to the township level don’t realize how little the safety net is in their community. Once they recognize that and realize how easy it is to become homeless and how hard it is to get out of homelessness, with a little mix of compassion, we can start to change that.

The other reality is that, especially with families, the cost of housing, the lack of jobs, the lack of support services – all of those things are real barriers for families experience anything as common as domestic violence or flooded houses. It’s so much easier now for families to become homeless than it ever has been in my 25 years working in this field.

BC: How do you feel Sleep Out Saturday helps?
DN: Sleep Out Saturday has grown to be a huge awareness raising event. One of the things that I’ve seen and heard about is the fact that when people experience one night of discomfort, that is at least a small sample of what homeless families might go through, I think they start realizing, “How could you then get up in the morning and go about getting your life back together?” It makes the discomfort of homelessness a lot more tangible. So then people start looking at homelessness differently. It gives more of the depth of the experience.

I’ve heard lots of good things from members of the faith communities that participate. There’s kind of been an enthusiastic pride in saying “Hey, I did this.” And I’ve heard comments that convey solidarity. That’s a very powerful feeling that really opens the door for a lot more involvement.

BC: Why do you think people should participate in SOS?
DN: Solidarity. The concept of walking in somebody’s shoes – even for a little while – makes you aware, makes you mindful. Once you’re mindful, you start noticing homelessness in the community and you start being aware that even in affluent DuPage County, homelessness is a huge problem.

BC: How could your movie, “on the edge,” help prepare people for Sleep Out Saturday?
DN: Of the many things that it does, “on the edge” will remove the stereotypes that typically serve as barriers for people getting involved in an issue that is almost like the plague for some people – they think they’re going to catch it. Then they hear the stories of the women in “on the edge,” and they realize they are just ordinary women who’ve had some really bad things happen. Once people start realizing that homeless people are just like you and me, they end up wanting to help more.

BC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
DN: I have heard and read so may negative comments about people in poverty and how they deserve it and don’t deserve any help. What Bridge Communities has done over the years to try to foster a compassion epidemic – because that’s really the solution to the issues we face in our society today – in addition to helping families, I think it also creates a very positive ripple effect in our community. We need that now more than ever. I’m very delighted that Bridge continues to do all of these extra things to try to help the DuPage community become more compassionate.

*Diane’s movies can be purchased online at http://hearus.us/understanding-homelessness/videos.html.

Spread the Word!

Have you registered your group on Sleep Out Saturday’s online pledge site? It’s easy, and it’s fun! Just visit https://www.bridgecommunities.org/sleep-out-saturday/register.html and click on “Register.”


5 Ways to Personalize Your SOS Pledge Page for Impact:

1. Choose a fun name for your group

2. Upload an image that captures your group’s personality

3. Write a special message to your donors about why Sleep Out Saturday is important to YOU

4. Enlist every member of your group to register as a Group Member and they can personalize their own fundraising page under the group’s page:

          a. As Group Leader you will receive an e-mail for you to accept each new group member.

          b. Encourage your Group Members to compete with each other for the highest on-line donations.

5. Challenge each member to set a fundraising goal higher than they’ve done in the past or, if they’ve never participated before, just higher than they think they can attain (set the bar high!)

Once you and your Group members have created your online SOS Pledge Page, use it! Email the link to your church members, family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Post it on Facebook. Write about it in your blog. Encourage everyone you know to read about your group’s participation in Sleep Out Saturday.

You can also include links to Sleep Out Saturday’s YouTube videos so your friends and family can hear first-hand about the impact Bridge Communities makes in people’s lives: http://www.youtube.com/bridgecommunities.

Got questions? Feel free to contact Jennie Gates anytime at (630) 545-0610 ext. 19 or jennie.gates@bridgecommunities.org.