Don’t Walk By 2011
For the past two years I have had the privilege of being involved in the Don’t Walk By outreach. My role is training over 1,000 volunteers for outreach to the homeless on the street of NYC. Here is a photo of a typical night during this 5 night outreach.
It has been really amazing and I would like to invite you to participate. We are especially in need of outreach team leaders. We’re still seeking 50 more Team Leaders to sign up. Would you consider signing on as a Team Leader for one (or more than one!) of the Saturday outreach events? Do you know one or two of your friends you could invite to join you in this important service? If each of our Team Leaders brought on 2 friends to serve as aditional Team Leaders, we would be in great shape!
To provide practical and scriptural support to those who are already signed up or are considering the role, we’re holding a Team Leader training this Tues, Dec 7 (THIS Tuesday!) from 7-8:30pm at Calvary Baptist Church at 123 W 57th St. If you can join us, will you please reply to this email to let us know you’ll be there?
Included here is a link to the Don’t Walk By registration page which contains info about the Team Leader role and links to info about the overall effort http://dontwalkby.org/main/how-to-help/.
Below is an article I wrote recently that was published in The Love Express and the Tri-State Voice. It gives lots of details. If you haven’t seen the Don’t Walk video yet, you really should. It’s a short and excellent video that has been shown to thousands now. Here is the article:
Imagine your desperation if you found yourself suddenly out of work, unable to pay for housing and suddenly thrust into the world of homelessness. Maybe even in your state of depression, you turn to liquid comfort to warm your body and numb your heart. Now imagine that it happened in the dead of winter and you were forced to find refuge on the streets of New York City, shuffling from one feeding program to another, searching for a lifeline to get back on your feet again.
We must place ourselves in other’s shoes to understand what kind of devastation the homeless must feel after having lost all sense of security. Compassion demands that believers do something to bring hope and help, but how?
January 8, 2011 marks the 3rd Annual Don’t Walk By outreach to the homeless organized by the NYC Rescue Alliance. For the last two years over 1,000 volunteers from over 100 churches have over a five-week period walked every block on the island of Manhattan on a search and rescue mission for streetbound homeless people. This year the outreach runs each Saturday evening from January 3 through February 5.
Amazingly, each year over 1,000 homeless people have been engaged and impacted by the love of Christ through volunteers. The strategy is for volunteers to meet at 2pm a specified anchor church in the zone of Manhattan that is being targetet that week. At the church, these volunteers receive training in practical ways to engage the homeless during the outreach. After that, they are fed some warm soup, and sent out in teams to walk their portion of the city that night. Volunteers take out goodie bags of items that people on the streets need, along with information on resources to help them get off of the streets.
For the 2011 outreach, we are looking for three different types of volunteers:
• Street Engagement Volunteers who will walk the streets of New York looking for homeless men, women and children and offer them the opportunity to come back to an anchor church for a hot meal, shower and a bed.
• Street Engagement Team Leaders are responsible for managing a group of 5-8 Engagement Volunteers. Team Leaders will walk the streets of New York looking for homeless men, woman and children and offer them an alternative to homelessness.
• Hospitality Volunteers are a critical group of men & women who perform a variety of key tasks serving homeless guests and supporting logistics at the host church. Some key hospitality tasks include greeting homeless guests who return to the host church for meals, engaging homeless guests in conversation as they eat, helping assessment staff connect with homeless guests, coordinating logistics for clothing distribution, supporting meal preparation, serving meals, clearing tables, and sitting with homeless guests while they await transport to a residential program.
DON’T WALK BY SCHEDULE
December 7th, 7-8:30pm/TEAM LEADER TRAINING at Calvary Baptist
January 8th – Upper West Side, All Angels Church 251 W 80th St, 10024
January 15th – Midtown, Calvary Baptist Church 123 W 57th St, 10019
January 22nd – Lower Manhattan, Oversea Chinese Mission, Hester St. between Mott & Elizabeth
January 29th – Upper East Side, Trinity Baptist Church, 250 E 61st St, New York
February 5th – Bethel Gospel Assembly, 120th St between 5th & Madison Ave
Age limit for this outreach is 18-years-old. To participate, volunteers must sign up at www.dontwalkby.org. For more information email Katrina Monta at kmonta@bowery.org or call 212-684-2800 x164.
Juan Galloway
Executive Director
The Relief Bus
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