The next “Community Fridays for a Cause” is Friday, December 7th.
The Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network will be the recipient of donations raised through the “Community Fridays for a Cause” program.
The Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network (RAIHN) is a not-for-profit, interfaith organization of faith communities that assists homeless families to achieve sustainable independence by supporting them with tailored services including shelter, food, personalized case management, and a diverse network of caring volunteers.
RAIHN is the only homeless shelter in the area that allows families to stay together. Other homeless shelters would refer the father of the family to a men’s shelter and the mother and small children to a women’s shelter.
As a guest of the RAIHN program, the family moves weekly from one host faith community to the next; typically spending four to six weeks in the program while they seek new housing through the professional counseling the guest families receive from RAIHN and other agencies.
Each day starts with breakfast at the host facility, provided by the volunteers from each hosting or support organization. The guests are then transported to the RAIHN Day Center where they can receive their mail, meet the school buses, do their laundry, bathe/shower, and most importantly, receive counseling on jobs and housing.
At the end of their busy day, the guests return to the host faith community (a different hosting congregation each week), where they are provided with dinner and support (if needed) from the host volunteers. After lunches are packed for the next day, the guests’ day ends with a private place to lay their heads together as a family, under one roof.
There can be few things more frightening, than finding your family homeless. Please consider how hard life is for a homeless family, especially at this time of year, and do what you can to support RAIHN and their efforts to bring families through this experience, to a better place.
Don’t forget to wear school colors in a show of support for our MCC family and our efforts to support RAIHN.
Donations will be collected in each department. All checks should be made out to the Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network. Donation envelopes have been returned to your departments to be used again on December 7th. Please bring donation envelopes to Jodee Biller in the Controller’s Office no later than 4:00 pm on Friday, December 7th.
Martha Maher-Garcia
Human Resources
12/05/2012 |