Have you ever felt overwhelmed?  Have you ever felt that life is coming apart at the seams?  Like me, no doubt you’ve been there more often than you would like.  And, like me, no doubt you’ve muddled your way forward with the help of family and friends or by reorganizing or “hiring out” some of the tasks before you.

Imagine now that those options weren’t available.  Imagine that you faced a world of issues – kids, health issues, social concerns, etc. –but had no family or friends on which to rely, indeed not even a house or apartment or shelter to retreat to at the end of the day.  Imagine that you had all of your current issues and, on top of it all, you had to figure out on a daily basis where you and your kids would sleep, where your next meals would come from, what you would wear if you lost the single bag that held all of your earthly  possessions, whether there was anyone you could trust.

Most of all, imagine the despair you would feel as a parent. You want the best for your kids; at a minimum, you want to keep them safe, but you have no resources, no means to do that.  You don’t even have a place to leave them while you try to find or keep a job.  You have  nothing and no one.  Wouldn’t that realization alone spiral you into a pit of loneliness and futility, taking away any shred of the dignity to which you may have been clinging.

That is the state most women are in when they come through the doors of Housing
Opportunities for Women (HOW) in Rogers Park. They are at bottom.  They have a
world of problems and no one to help.

HOW changes all of that.  Whatever the reason for the homelessness, HOW’s staff greet the women with open arms.  It puts them and their children into housing right away and then it works with them to ferret out the issues confronting them.  For some, it is a health issue; for some it is a need for job plaining or education; for some, it is substance abuse or a history of domestic violence; for some, it is persistent unemployment.  The problems vary and often come in multiples.  The solution, however, is the same:  An individualized program tailor-made to address the problems at hand and to put that individual on a path to healing, a path to self-sufficiency.

HOW’s staff prepare a plan with set goals and timelines with the women they serve.  The women must commit to the plan and then must satisfy the goals step-by-step, day-by-day, month-by-month to stay in the program.  Over the course of time (typically a two year time frame) they go from having nothing, from feeling worn out and, in many instances, worthless, to being a productive member of
society with a paying job sufficient to support themselves and their children and to pay their own rent, with stable health and with a feeling of accomplishment.  HOW’s success rate is remarkable – 90% of the women who begin a program finish it and end up in a position to retain their housing (on their own) and stable employment and to give back to their new-found community.

The children of HOW’s clients also come through the program gaining ground each step of the
way.  In recent years, HOW saw its first children head to college.  These children completed their high school educations while their mothers were in the HOW program.  The homes and stability HOW
provided gave them a place to do their homework and to take refuge from the streets on which they used to live.  It gave them hope for a different life and a belief in themselves and their
abilities.

If you want to learn more about the amazing work HOW is doing, check out the “Our Successes” page on its website (www.how-inc.org).  You will learn that there are many paths to homelessness – from the loss of a job to a need to care for a sick child or parent to an abusive home life, and so on.  You will learn of each client’s commitment to herself and to becoming a productive member of society; she just needs the helping hand HOW extends to her.

To me, the fact of the homeless among us and the remarkable stories of success are calls to action, and the support HOW provides demonstrates God’s hand at work in the most tangible of ways.  I believe that our call to action is to help HOW reach out to these the neediest among us.  Dollars donated to HOW go directly to this work – providing the housing, providing the staff and resources that directly service clients, providing the empowerment and scholarship programs and the job and educational training that put women and their children on the road to self-sufficiency.

This mission possible opportunity for May 2011 is HOW. I hope that you will join me in making a difference in the lives of HOW’s clients by making a mission possible donation this month.  The money you give will truly glorify God as it is used to save the lives of the needy and less fortunate among us.  Your support literally gives life to the needy in our community.

Thank you in advance for supporting HOW’s work and mission.