Fall 2000

The Letter to the Neighborhood

reetings dear friends from all of us at Good Works, Inc.

 We are soon coming to the close of our 20th year at Good Works. I am both excited about the future and grateful for the past. It feels good to know that you are making a difference in the lives of people in need. I feel quite privileged to work among such wonderful and caring people, both on our staff as well as in the community.

Good Works, Inc.

--A Community of Hope

Hello neighbors, I would like to write to you about the shelter's relationship with our neighborhood. We are interested how we impact not only the residents who stay at the shelter, but also those who live near the shelter and our community as a whole. We want our influence to be positive. We hope to carry the message that Good Works cares for those in need and welcomes the assistance of our neighbors in a community effort toward this end.
We work to ensure that the people who stay at the shelter do not cause problems for our neighbors. Before people are eligible to come for shelter, they must first call us and complete a telephone interview. If our staff discerns that they will be a safe addition to the composition of the shelter, they will be welcomed. For others who create concern, we take steps to minimize the risk and to increase the level of trust before we admit them.
We also require responsibility of the people who stay at the shelter. We ask that they behave respectfully toward their neighbors. We ask that they do not loiter in the neighborhood. We give them the responsibility of maintaining the yard, as an expression of respect and dignity for themselves, their temporary home, for their surroundings, and for their neighbors. During the winter, the shelter has an arrangement with the church at the end of the street,		  
whereby our residents can earn money daily in exchange for shoveling the snow and ice off of the sidewalk and steps of the church. The church also allows the shelter to use its basement for special meals and our residents are conscientious to clean up the church after each use. A few neighbors have employed our residents for yard work, home repairs, and construction.
Each fall we have a Neighborhood Picnic. We invite all of our neighbors to come for hot dogs and burgers and provide a chance for us to talk with them and get to know them. We open our doors to give them the opportunity to see the inside of the shelter and to become familiar with who we are and and what we are about.
We call ourselves a "Community of Hope," but how does this become a reality in everyday life? We frequently take in people who are "beaten up at the side of the road" and don't have the strength left to pull themselves up. We provide a place where their broken and shattered lives may be repaired. On the streets, the rule is lie to survive, but at the shelter, the rule is be honest to stay here. Through trial and error, our residents begin to learn that indeed, if they tell the truth, we will be fair with them, and help them to face their lives and grow. We believe that in the truth there is hope. We also believe that it is only in a safe atmosphere where people can learn to trust one another again, that lives can truly be rebuilt.
Good Works seeks to provide and promote a community with an atmosphere that fosters healthy relationships of trust and responsibility that can enable healing and growth over the long term.
One way that these beliefs come to life is through relationships built between our neighbors in the community and our residents. For example, some of our residents are trapped by the relationships they have formed with others like themselves who have too little stability and too few positive examples in their lives. For these people, it is essential that others in our community befriend them, welcome them into their social circles, and lift them up to experience healthy habits, relationships, and responsibility. Through such friendships, they may learn that they have a choice about the kinds of friends they want to be around and about the direction they want their lives to go.
Such relationships which transform the lives of the homeless and those who touch their lives are formed through our Friday Night Life and activities afterward. We also see transformational relationships through our volunteer programs, through employment opportunities, through the support of caring people in other agencies, and through our churches. You are needed and welcome.
-Amy Hassenpflug (Amy is a a Caregiver at the Shelter)