Powerful Healing: Light The Way Home
On December 3, our collaborative came together for our second Light The Way Home event. Together we heard stories of hope, home, and healing. Here are two of those stories.
Doran’s Story:
Lee’s Story:
I’m so inspired by Doran who became an amazing advocate, working for the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans to help homeless veterans find a home. He’s now moving toward retirement and shared that his time at Lydia was a pivotal and important time in his life. We’re grateful to Doran for his good work in the community and we’re proud to share with him a vision that all people have a home.
I’m Lee Blons, President and CEO of Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, and I’m proud that our organization has grown to become the leading developer of supportive housing in the Twin Cities – through listening and learning from our neighbors like Doran, and through the power of all those who join in our work, like those of you here today.
Here we are on December 3rd heading into the darkest time of the year; facing a raging pandemic and holidays without those to whom we usually draw close. It feels good to think ahead –when we will unclench our jaws and let our shoulders relax, when we can get more of what we all need again. It feels good to imagine easier days, to maintain hope that they are coming.
But I also know that hard times don’t just go away. They require some time to heal. How will we heal? And how will we ensure that healing is available to everyone? Not just a return to easy for those who had it relatively easy before, but a return to better for all. A time of powerful healing after what for so many of us has been the hardest year, but for others has been just another year in a long line of difficult years. How do we heal? How do we make healing possible for all of our neighbors?
I know most of us can think of difficult times we’ve been through before, and I hope most of us can remember the people, places, moments in our lives that helped us know we could weather the storm and look ahead to easier times. For me…. I remember the morning when I woke up to the “aha” that the fun and parties that I enjoyed so much in college was no longer fun and that I had a drinking problem. To this day I can remember the first call I made 39 years ago asking for help. With the privilege that comes from being at a small liberal arts college, I called the Dean of Students at home, who I did not know. Her partner answered and said she’s out in the yard, can she call you back and I paused and she said- “I’ll get her”. She gave information on an AA meeting for the next morning and asked if I would be safe over the weekend until I got in to see the school counselor on Monday. I never talked with her again but I remember that she was there for me with kindness and compassion and no judgement. She was the first of so many that helped me along the way of my 39 years of sobriety.
We don’t often share these stories with each other, but it can be so powerful when we do. These stories can help us heal – especially when they show that better times just might be ahead. And whenever we feel some doubt that better times really are ahead, that’s our signal to get to work. Many of us right now are once again giving up our time at the gym, evenings dining out with friends, hugs from our loved ones, things that sustain us, that help us heal. But we face these sacrifices with a sense of purpose. We work together to bring about easier times ahead.
Too many of our neighbors have faced their challenges with no one to answer the call for help. As an organization committed to fighting for racial equity, we understand that whether it is the pandemic, the downturn in jobs or homelessness that people of color are disproportionately impacted. Some of our neighbors are literally trying to survive in tents and other places not safe for human habitation.
This is why, at Beacon, we create affordable homes that include supportive services – the homes our neighbors need most, and which are the most challenging to create. Our work is focused on righting the deep rooted inequities in our housing system. It’s difficult work, but our purpose is clear: we are answering the call. Those who move out of homelessness and into Beacon homes need time and help to heal. Home is healing. And healing is powerful. We all deserve the opportunity to look back at a hard time and feel proud for making it through, feel the power of healing.
As you heard from Doran, places like our Lydia Apartments provide holistic support services for residents in their homes so they can access powerful healing. Beacon creates an environment in each building that is supportive of stability and healing – we make sure the building’s bills are paid, that rent subsidies are available to residents, and manage all the risks that go along with maintaining these programs for residents and the partners we convene. This means that for residents in our buildings – whether at Lydia where residents are living in recovery, at 66 West where young people are recovering from trauma as children, and at Great River Landing where men are building stable lives after incarceration, and for the FUTURE residents at Bimosedaa and Vista 44 and Prairie Pointe – their focus can be healing. They can find better times ahead.
Our residents and neighbors have taught us what it takes, and we have listened – this is why we convene and coordinate supportive services in 10 supportive housing communities and why we are asking you to join us today in creating many more places and spaces for powerful healing.
Will you help us light the way home? Make a gift today and join us as we work to see that all people have a home.
