Faith Summit on Homelessness – A Success!
On Thursday January 22nd over 130 people came together at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Framingham to learn, discuss and strategize about ending homelessness in Massachusetts. Episcopal City Mission along with the event’s co-sponsors; One Family, Inc., The Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance and United Way of Mass Bay and the Merrimack Valley have labeled the event a “tremendous success.”
Attendees came from all corners of the state, from the Pioneer Valley to the North Shore and Cape Cod. Included in the crowd were members of Episcopal congregations, shelter providers, affordable housing consultants, state employees, the New England Regional representative from the White House’s Faith Based Initiative’s office, several local elected officials, and the Governor’s Director of Grassroots’ Initiatives.
Bishop Gayle Harris began the program with a rousing welcome and a poignant story about the difficult decision of paying for food or rent that many are facing in these tough economic times. With her words she created a mood of understanding and compassion, and prepared the audience to hear the hope and new innovations being proposed to end this crisis in the Commonwealth.
The keynote was given by Robert Pulster, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness (ICHH). Mr. Pulster gave an overview of the mission of the ICHH and their plans to shift the state’s approach to homelessness from an emergency response to one focused on prevention and long term solutions. He shared how several state programs will be changing their outcome goals to be in line with this mission and that the administration recently awarded 8 regions a total of $8 million to begin working on homeless prevention, housing creation and job growth and stabilization in their communities.
The Rev. Bob Bachelder, the Executive Director of the UCC Central Area Mission Society talked about how his community has collaborated with over 20 congregations in the Hope for Housing program, an initiative that raises unrestricted funds for homeless prevention, through rental assistance, fuel assistance and other forms of support for families at risk of becoming homeless. This program was an excellent example of how the faith community can engage in this work to end homelessness.
The evening concluded with opportunities for attendees to talk with one another, sharing their own experiences, ideas and questions about their role in this work. Discussions were lively and just the beginning! ECM and its partners plan to follow up with all those who participated to provide action steps and even more information on the changes happening at the state level in their communities. Together we can help end homelessness in Massachusetts.
Posted by Lucena Daley on Tuesday, February 10, 2009