Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
How To Serve A Homeless Person: Guide To Gift Bags
March 9, 2009
We can help a homeless person by serving him/her food, a blanket and/or necessary items. It's a pretty simple and wonderful thing to do.
In this article, I would like to propose a way to share items with homeless people. This distribution method of serving an unhoused person has worked for Children Helping Poor and Homeless People volunteers for over twenty-two years. I will discuss "the charitable giving of food" in detail in a later article.
Let's start from the beginning - we'd like to share something with a homeless person/people, but what should we share and how can we do share it?
First, we ask ourselves, what would we like to share with those in need. Not sure? On our website, www.chphp.com, there is a "Can You Help?" button which, once clicked on, will reveal a number of suggestions of how to help.
One of our favorite projects is to assemble one or more Gift Bags, also known as, Survival Kits or Toiletry Bags. The goal of this project is to fill a bag(s) with new hotel/motel size toiletries and then give them to homeless people.
Although any bag or container can be used, we suggest using gallon zip lock bags for a number of reasons: they are big enough to fit a lot of items; a homeless person can reuse the bag; and because the top of the bag can be securely closed, the car/transportation vehicle is safe from spillage.
Having selected Gift Bags as our project, we can then think about the toiletry items we want to include in each Gift Bag. This is a very important part of this project because we are raising our own awareness. We can let our minds wonder and imagine what personal items a homeless person could use. We might even ask ourselves what personal items we would want if we were homeless.
For more ideas of personal items to include in the Gift Bag, we can refer to a list of just some of these items on our website, www.chphp.com and click on the " "Can You Help?" button.
We can then make a list of these toiletry items and share this list with our extended family, classroom, school and others to raise awareness and to generate more personal items. We can also purchase toiletries at reasonable prices at discount stores such as The 99 Cent Store or Big Lots.
After our collection is complete, we can sort these wonderful toiletries into piles of similar items, such as a pile of combs, a pile of toothbrushes and a pile of toothpaste.
Then, we put one or several of each item into each bag. This assembly process is great fun and can be done by young people and adults alike.
After our Gift Bags are assembled, we can bring them to homeless people we've seen in any area, place or park. For example, in Los Angeles County, we frequently distribute to people in need on the Santa Monica Promenade or at Venice Beach.
We follow several guidelines when we share/distribute anything to anyone:
1. We always serve in a group with two or more adults. We are a team. We always stay together.
2. We always serve others in a well-lit area.
3. We always use our common sense. For example, we don't like to be awakened when we are sleeping, so we don't wake a homeless person up to serve him/her anything. We can put the item(s) nearby without disturbing the sleeping person.
4. The homeless children, women and men are our guests. How do we treat a guest? With kindness and respect.
5. We use special words when serving another person. We say, "Excuse me, Sir or Madam, do you know anyone who could use this ____________ ? Fill in the blank, which in this case, is a Gift Bag filled with toiletries.
We have found that the person we are asking will usually respond in one of three ways,
1. 1% of the time he/she will say, "No, I don't."
Our response: "Thank you, have a nice day!"
2. 1% of the time he/she will say, "Yes, there is a person who could use it right over there."
Our response: "Thank you, have a nice day!"
3. 98% of the time he/she will say, "Yes, I could!"
Our response: "Wow, that's great! Here you are. Have a nice day!"
That's it.
Creating Gift Bags is a lot of fun, but I can assure you that the distribution, this sharing, is the very best part.
I hope that you will consider direct service. It's good for all of usTuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Save for college, feed a child, make a difference!
What if you could help feed America's children in need?
What if you could do all this without it costing you a dime?
Would you consider that's a pretty good deal? I thought so.
That's why I teamed up with Upromise and the Feed the Children
What's this all about? I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you about it.
Recently as I watched a tv news story, I discovered an astounding statistic. Children in this country are going hungry and at rate of 12,000 per day! I wanted to do something about it.
In my quest to figure out what someone like me could do without having to ask a lot of people for money, I came up with an answer.
Upromise allows you to save toward college for anyone you designate just by doing what you
already do, shop. When you buy groceries, go out to eat, buy gas, go to your local drug store,
a percentage of your receipts is placed in a College Savings account. Join Upromise for FREE and let hundreds of America’s leading companies help you save for college
Not bad, huh?
Heat or Eat? America's parents are facing a tough choice. Help families avoid the dilemma of heating their homes or feeding their children.
Helping Hungry Children and Families in the United States
Feed The Children believes that no child should go to bed hungry in this blessed and plentiful country. There are many ways that we try to feed those in desperate need right here in America.
You are helping us make an important difference in the lives of families for whom hunger and need are daily realities.
What do these two have to do with each other? Nothing, except I've decided to combine these two powerful organizations to make a huge difference. When you enroll in Upromise and register your grocery store, credit/debit card or pharmacy card, you will begin building college savings, I will donate $2 to Feed the Children The idea is for a lot of people to do a little, to make a big difference in the lives of millions.
I have made a commitment to feed 1 million children this year!Isn't that awesome!,but I need your help. So let me recap:
You enroll in Upromise for FREE, register your grocery store, pharmacy or credit/debit card to begin your college savings when you shop for everyday items.
- I will donate $2 to Feed the Children to feed hungry children in the United States
- You will receive special savings and bonuses for items you buy everyday while saving for college
- and we will all help in eliminating hunger in America for so many needy families
It can't get any better than that. Never can so little do so much for so many. And you didn't have to spend a dime, nothing, nada, zilch!
Why not get started now. The deadline is March 31st for this promotion. So do it now while you're thinking about it.
Join me as we help make a difference in the lives of many struggling families in America to provide higher education and put food on the table.
Gail Turner Brown
Small Business Network TV
P.S. Remember it costs you NOTHING when you join Upromise and register to begin saving for college for anyone, and I will donate $2 to Feed the Children
