“I’ve come back to life – I’d checked out. This is a miracle…[Housing Opportunities] saved my life, honestly. I was on the verge of giving up,” a client told me when we were talking one afternoon in her apartment. For this client, like the majority of those we serve, unforeseen circumstances prevented her from working anymore and a woman who was once a self-sufficient, engaged mother became homeless and suicidal. “I had nothing – everything was gone. I was so deep in a hole and I knew I would never get out,” she said. Housing Opportunities was initially able to help this client by providing her with a temporary housing unit, getting her approved for Social Security Disability Insurance, and offering her companionship at a time when she had never felt more alone. Five years later, she is a part of our permanent housing program and spends her free time helping HO’s new clients by providing information about resources, giving rides, and being a friend: “I want to pay it forward.”
Hearing stories like the above remind me why it is imperative to serve others. With my hectic schedule, sometimes I treat philanthropy like just another item on my to-do list; I want to cross it off so I can move on with my day. But the problem with this mentality is that philanthropy is not confined to the group you volunteer with, your job at a non-profit, or the checks you write to your favorite charity. Just as we are continually breathing, we should continually be serving. What I am learning everyday at my internship is that our (humanity’s) need is so great but our potential is even greater. I’ve seen what an office of twenty-one dedicated individuals is capable of giving to society when they work together towards eliminating homelessness; I want to see what a nation of people can do when they work together towards eliminating suffering worldwide. This is obviously a grandiose desire; since I started working for an organization whose clientele report we saved their life, I can’t help but dream big.
(below) A client’s daughters style my hair 🙂
