|
|
Search Our Site Communicate with other DFAOC members through
To join, e-mail Learn More About Legislation in Congress at:
Current
Thanks to Geek and Proud, Alan Penner Cost of the (JavaScript Error) |
Community ActionEact quarter DFA-OC members support a local Orange County organization that provides services within the county to people in need. The first quarter of 2008, members supported the Second Harvest Food Bank with direct food and financial donations. For more information, visit http://www.feedoc.org/For the second quarter we will focus on Isaiah House in Santa Ana. Dwight Smith, director, will speak to the group at our April 2 meeting about homelessness in Orange County and the remodeling project currently underway at the House. See below for more information about Isaiah House. Visit http://www.occatholicworker.org/ Isaiah House316 Cypress http://www.occatholicworker.org/
Isaiah House is a House of Hospitality. We offer direct service for the homeless poor, especially families and disabled men and women. We serve good food, 3000 hot meals each week, and provide a warm place to stay for up to 120 people each night. We use old clothes, about a ton each week. We use 48 rolls of toilet paper and two boxes of 43-gallon trash bags. That's in just one week, and we do this every week of the year. We're open all the time, 365 days a year, since the volunteer staff lives on site. We don't do this for money, because no one at the Isaiah House is paid: we're all volunteers. We do it because we're grateful. We have been given the gift of life and we have no other choice but to share it with everyone as need and talent dictate. We think we're the luckiest people in the world to have the chance to share our lives with those in need. We're also the largest homeless shelter in Orange County, twice the size of the Rescue Mission or the Salvation Army, and we serve more meals to the homeless than Casa Garcia, the Rescue Mission and the Salvation Army combined. We are also the one with the smallest budget. When every single penny goes directly to the poor, a penny goes a long long way. Three nights each school week high school students come to serve the homeless on the street and to read to the 40 or so little kids that stay at our house. Other nights, groups come to help cook and serve here and to the folks on the street. Every Sunday a different group gathers to prepare a brunch feast for the poor in our backyard. We partner with Project Hope School and the Boy's and Girl's Club of Santa Ana or with Temple Beth Shalom Children's Learning Center to insure that no child staying with us is academically deprived. Every child goes to school every school day, without exception. As the only "kid based shelter" in Orange County, we let parents stay here as long as their children are going to school, until the problem that caused their homelessness can be resolved. We see this as the only humane alternative to the ordinary practice of giving families 3 or 7 days each month, and then watching them blow their TANF checks in cheap motels and at fast food joints. We negotiate an amount that must be saved by each family each month. The amount they budget for moving into an apartment divided by the amount they save tells us both how long they'll need to stay with us. We commit to that length of stay, and we make a written promise to the school district to that effect. We try to reach out to those who are forgotten and alone. We believe that people can heal through friendship and commitment. We have no program except to care for our brothers and sisters. We try to help one another to be living signs of love and doing this work at a personal sacrifice. Isaiah House is a special project of the Friends of Dorothy Day, P.O. Box 474, Santa Ana, CA, 92704. Tax ID 95-4741990. Donations to the Friends of Dorothy Day are tax deductible. |
|
Copyright © 2004-2005, Democracy for America - Orange County, all rights reserved. |
