An Idea to Help You Build the Second Candle of Your Chanukiyat Tzedek … and More to Do/Discuss …
Austin’s weather is usually pretty nice, but the past couple weeks have brought nights in the 30s (and even in the 20s in some places). To someone most recently used to Los Angeles weather, it has been pretty yucky and I have been thinking a lot about the people who can’t just go turn their thermostats up (like I do) when it gets cold outside: all those people who have no place to live.
Currently, there are an estimated 4,000 people in Austin alone who are homeless … and only 600 shelter beds. That leaves at least 3,400 people with no beds, but all 4,000 lack a place where they can feel secure and a place to call their own. (Downtown churches do provide emergency shelter space when it gets to 35 degrees (wet) or 32 degrees (dry), but even this does not meet all the demand … how many of us would want to sleep outside even if it were 40 degrees every night?)
IHN … Interfaith Hospitality Network …
This week, we here at Congregation Beth Israel have been able to help several homeless families through our participation in the Family Promise/Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN), coordinated by Foundation for the Homeless here in Austin. During the day, these families spend time at the Day Shelter, but four/five weeks a year, classrooms in our Learning Center are converted to bedrooms for homeless families. Smith Auditorium becomes their dining room. Our washing machine becomes theirs. And our family becomes their extended family. We are really able to affect people’s lives in one of the most basic of ways, by providing food and shelter to families in times of need.
For a successful hosting, we require at least 50 volunteers, each one doing a small job to help this program succeed. Here are some of the (small) jobs available for volunteers: cook part of a dinner, set up before and clean up after a meal, help on move-in or move-out day, help entertain the kids, sleep over at CBI to be available for our guests in case of emergency, and many more! Everyone picks a small task and by working together we accomplish this great mitzvah! Our guests for this visit leave tomorrow, but we will have new guests arriving in Feburary. Please contact our IHN Chairs, Sandy Bootz (sbootz@yahoo.com) or Meryl Wasserman (wasswomen@aol.com) for more information regarding how you can help in February. CBI also accepts donations earmarked for the expenses associated with IHN while the families are visiting. To help support this worthwhile project, please go to www.bethisrael.org and click on the large “Make a Donation” button (then select “Social Action-Interfaith Hospitality Network”).
If you would like more information about IHN, please view this short video about the programs they offer and to hear personal stories of families helped by congregations in the Network: http://www.foundationhomeless.org/programs.php. (Please note that CBI is the only synagogue in Austin participating in the Network.)
The ARCH … Austin Resource Center for the Homeless …
If you would like additional ways to help the homeless, please consider the ARCH (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless … found at www.frontsteps.org). Located at 500 East 7th Street downtown, the ARCH provides not only a meal, but also an overnight men’s shelter, health care, food, and most importantly, case management.
Its case managers are currently working to help people into transitional housing and are currently accepting the following items: beds, space heaters, dressers, kitchen tables/chairs, end tables/night stands, microwaves, dishes, pots and pans, coffee pots, and mops/cleaning supplies. If you would like to donate any of these items to the Recuperative Care Project at the ARCH, please contact Dawn Perkins at 512-305-4174 for instructions regarding donating (please note that you must make your donation of these items directly to the ARCH and, unfortunately, they cannot be brought to CBI). More information regarding this project can be found at http://www.frontsteps.org/how-to-help/donate/wish-list.html. Get a jump-start on your new year’s resolution to get rid of items you don’t need … check out their “wish list” to see if your “extras” could help the clients at the ARCH!
So, the next you go to your thermostat, please think about those who are homeless … and resolve to do just a little something to give others that same warmth and sense of security we feel when we know we have a place to lay our heads each night.
- Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein : )
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