Dear Friends,
Think about where your story beings – did you get up this morning from a nice warm bed, go to the kitchen, pour yourself a nice hot cup of coffee? Did you jump in the shower and get ready for your day with morning breakfast, even if it was on the run?
If you are a homeless child, your story may begin in the shelter, under a bridge or in the family car. If you are a homeless family living at the shelter, you may not always have been there. You may remember better times, when you had a roof that you owned or rented over you. Your walls were covered with familiar pictures. If you are recently homeless through foreclosure, eviction, or loss of a job, you may be feeling overwhelmed and distracted. Your children may be looking to you for the answers and you have to make things up as you go along.
Nehemiah Community Development Corporation will help families rebuild their lives. Nehemiah CDC will play a key role to ending and preventing homelessness in Washington County. We will help families secure permanent affordable housing, better employment, and independent Christian living.
In some of the neighborhoods in which we will work, many of the houses are vacant or boarded up; people walk the street looking for work and children see lifestyles that are not healthy or productive. But we bring hope, along with after school programs for children, crime prevention and community problem solving, youth and senior services, family programs and social and cultural activities. We help neighbors help each other – we help put the “neighbor” back in neighborhood!
We will help homeless families, and those living in dire economic circumstances begin again to rebuild their story. We will help mothers regain custody of their children after being incarcerated. We will help fathers find employment so they can care for their families and children. We will help neighborhoods become stronger with children’s afterschool care, workforce development, and small business development.
Nehemiah CDC will root out the causes of poverty and homelessness and restore hope to those living on the edge. We will offer a hand up, not a hand out. We expect that those we help will help themselves and then reach back to help others. You too can be the first brick to a strong foundation.
Sincerely,
Arlando D. Parker
Chief Executive Officer
