Okc Video on Non - Profits - Tapestry project and bethel foundation - Found causes 5

Oklahoma City has gone through a renaissance the last several years. Bricktown, the canal, the river, new buildings, a real exciting time but during those same years we've seen an increase in homelessness, unemployment, in homelessness drug abuse and child abuse, the list just goes on. Most people would consider those just lost causes but I see it differently. I'm Dale Epperson and welcome to Found Causes. In the next half hour and the weeks to come we're gonna explore some charities in our city that provide real solutions to these problems and we'll show you how you can make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. We've taken care of the buildings in our city, now let's take care of the soul of our city: the people. Found Causes, brought to you by the Joshua Foundation. Do you think a drug-infested neighborhood is a lost cause? On today's episode we'll show you one that's being transformed. What we kept hearing over and over again was this need for housing among a targeted group of women. Neglect. Abuse. Abandonment. It's happening right now to children throughout Oklahoma. White Fields provides a stable home for the most abused and neglected boys in our state giving them the chance to experience hope for the first time in their lives. White Fields offers stability to boys who've experienced pain and hardship well beyond their years. Whitefields is there a place to call home. We are about four miles west of any major about four and a half miles from any major like resource hub in this city if there's no means to transportation it's really hard for our families to get to and from the local food pantries to and from the shelters, so what we see a lot in this neighborhood is couch homelessness where the families just go from place to place to place, family, friend, and then on this side of the city there are lots of children sleeping in cars. Around two and a half years ago um... Joshua, my husband, was building a real estate portfolio for the general Oklahoma City area and he came home around dinner time and said honey I how was your day, great. Bought an apartment complex and I was just like you did what? and so we journeyed down here to see it and this particular building was uh... you know pretty devastated it was it was slanted, the foundation was wrecked, you know and it was used as an old leasing office and so we just started by cleaning up trash. We had no intention on starting a non-profit but what we hope to do was come down in this area and that make it physically look nicer and then also resource the community by connecting them to the people and places in our city that could meet some of their immediate needs. When I came here actually, a little bit afterwards, I lived here for like a month with my husband he went to jail. We began by just connecting with people and our hope was to provide resources for the. What we kept hearing over and over again was this need for housing among at targeted group of women, you know maybe eighteen to forty years old that for whatever reason had dependent children and they didn't have on avenues like education, employment or transportation to stay on their feet and the cycle went like this. They had no ability to read past at maybe a third grade reading level and so they could pass their driver's exam so many of them didn't have basics like driver's licenses and because they couldn't drive they didn't have reliable employment and because they didn't have employment they didn't have housing so we basically said we want to exist to house those families. Well, they help you with a lot of things as far as food, company, prayer, everything. They help you with everything around here. Matter of fact I was here for three days and I ran out of diapers and Gena, the landlord that takes care of the place, she came over in about three minutes and brought me diapers. I've never heard of such a thing like this. They need a lot more places like this for people. Well, I knew Josh and Amy through my work, I'm an electrician, I did some work for them at their house, and started a personal relationship and Bible study with them, found out what they were doing down here and just started work for them down here and then just started talking to them more and was interested in what they were doing and they needed some houseparents and so my wife and I jumped on board. We started with renovating the two-bedroom apartments and placing these women in them and then getting them a mentor. I got a mentor, I look at her like my mother. She is everything, she's helped me ever since I hit rock bottom. Someone who would really partner with them and would help them get to and from maybe their GED classes or would help them find the right child care or bring in groceries at the end of the month if they ran low, and basically just begin improving the quality of their lives. That's what I needed in my life, somebody to push me, tell me Denise, you can do this, you are worth something in life. Don't let what other people told you in the past take you down cause you can do whatever you want. And I put that through my head and actually believed in her and I went through it and I'm right here right now about to get me a new house. I got all my kids with me, my kids are fed, my rent is paid up now. Before I couldn't afford a bill in my life, but I'm very grateful for her. We started an after-school program two years ago it meets four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from four to six and it's for our residents children but also for the kids in the neighborhood. Our hope is to make this community livable again and we know that's gonna happen with the next generation of kids. So we meet here with tutors and mentors for the kids we play games, we have circle time, we also provide a snack, a time for them to do their homework and reading enhancement and play sports as well as get on the computer computers. We started a summer camp first time last summer and we do two things during our camp. We feed a lunch on the lawn everyday. Food shortages is just a reality in this community and so we try to partner with the families that live here by providing as many meals for their kids as we can so that their food stamps will last and their food budgets will carry on and and so that's a huge part of our summer camp and we're always looking for people to help contribute and help us with our lunch on the lawn during the summertime. Tapestry has is a real personal journey. When i was fifteen a couple from one of the local baptist churches took me in, mentored me, helped me get back to school and when I turned 18 they adopted me and I became a huge part of their family and they're my children's grans and grandpa and they're my mom and dad and so it's just it changed my life and when I had the opportunity to stand on this lawn and I felt God calling me to come back into neighborhood like this and to really be among the people here, to tell them what he'd done in my life and certainly give them the hope that they weren't created for the defeat that they faced everyday but instead with the help and care and love of others they could overcome and that they could really have a better quality of life. Tapestry is a family. It's a family. It's not just some apartment complex you move into. You're not just another person, you're a part of the family. They take care of you. When I first came out here, I told Amy God used her too to destroy me... and that means to destroy my perception of what it means, what it meant to be a Christian. You know, I thought I was doing good, I was out there making a living, supporting my family doing the good thing you know, then I moved down here and and I see that what I thought being a Christian wasn't at all. I had to get outside of my house outside of who I was in order to really communicate to other people what my faith is and what I believe, and I say destroyed but it was a good thing. It was a great thing. Well, when I wasn't here before I wasn't going to school, I wasn't working, I was drinking a lot, basically. I was caught up in drinking and some drugs and stuff and it helped me, she helped me stop and changed my life completely and see that life shouldn't be like that, I can make a whole turnaround and go a whole different way with it and that's what I'm doing. I'm honestly, and this is not exaggerating, but it's completely changed my life. I would say it's help me realize the reality of ministry, that ministry is messy, and it's dirty and it's not anything that's easy. But definitely because of that, God's power is shown time in and time out he's shown his power by being there for support financially, with food, with emotion, just me myself, personally, it's just been a constant reminder that I am really insignificant compared to God and this has changed my life in just about every aspect. I don't like to look back then to be honest with you. the selfish person that I was, scared person that I was. I didn't... I took my relationship with Christ was it's mine nobody else could have it. Coming down here now I see it is my personal relationship but I know that I have to share it with everybody else. They have to see what God's doing through me, for me and can do for them. It's really changed the way I parent, the way I'm a husband to my wife, you know, the way I'm a friend. It's just completely changed my life. Our volunteers are literally the warriors that keep the engine afloat so we are asking people to partner with us to tutor our children in the afterschool program, to mentor these women and the commitment is... new people think "mentoring, I have to do all this" and the commitment is this: we're expecting a phone call a week to the woman in the family that you're mentoring and an outing a month and then basically to stay intact and state accountable with them providing them structure through accountability. Also the last way that we are asking people to partner with us is through a sponsorship of our families on our website you'll find, on our donate page, an opportunity to sponsor a family for thirty dollars a month and this thirty dollar contribution is gonna go towards the residents that live here to participate in a Thrive Foods co-op where they'll be given fresh produce, eggs and meat twice a month. I never thought, you know, I never had the intention like I'm gonna have one miracle story after another but that's exactly what has happened and it's been life-changing for me and as we produce these really good stories of kids choosing videos games over gangs and kids getting mentored and tutored and passing grades that they were told they were never gonna pass and these are huge accomplishments. I've definitely realized how much they've changed my life and that's because I've tried my hardest to invest and spend time with them so I would just, I would challenge people who want to volunteer to come ready to just pour into these kids and be amazed by what happens just your own life. I found my cause. I found my cause. I found my cause. I found my cause. I found my cause. As you can tell communities' what Tapestry's all about; changing a neighborhood by changing one life at a time and they've created a model that can be used in any place in the city. To find out how you can be part of that community just log on to Found Causes dot com. Is there a place were single moms can go for help? When we come back we'll take you there. I actually just cried out to the Lord one day and said "God, fi you'll help me get out of this mess I'll devote my life to helping single mothers." For years the Joshua Foundation has been actively engaged in the lives of people who find themselves in the middle of crisis. Whether that crisis is physical, financial relational, mental or spiritual that's why the Joshua Foundation exists to provide support for individuals and families during difficult times. We've helped during natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes as well as assistance with medical bills, food, clothing, shelter and transportation. Restoring hope. Restoring lives. That is the Joshua Foundation. I have found myself after escaping just a torment of domestic violence-type of relationships I found myself, me and my daughter, I decided to go back to school and I found myself pregnant and alone with a four year old back in college so I did an internet search and for help for single moms and I ran across Linda. I emailed her and I said I have nothing for the baby we're running into the end of the semester and we're running out of soap and everything and she's like you know come by and I'll see what i can do for you. It was a huge struggle as a single mom there just wasn't a lot of resources out there available other than welfare, so I had to go that route just to put food on the table for me and my children and so it was veyr hard and difficult. We just had a mother, a young mother, twenty-two years old, a single mother, with three children, three and six years old. Her sister went to jail because of *** and the baby was born on *** and nobody else in the family would take that little girl and she did. I realized that I was gonna have to go to school to get a degree just to be competitive in order to try and find a decent-paying job. There are certain situations that you get into when you might not just have enough money to make things stretch, you might need a birthday gift for your child or a birthday cake, you know camps, camps for a huge thing for me all the camps that I researched about or looked at online, they all cost money and a lot of money. All of the camps that we do here at Bethel Foundation are free. through that of reaching the bottom of the hole and thinking there is no way out. The harder I worked the deeper I got so actually I just cried out to the Lord one day at that point in my life where I was at spiritually and said God if you'll help me get out of this mess, I'll devote my life to helping single mothers, but it wasn't until many years later because I had to go through a healing process from being in abusive relationships just the struggles of trying to see where I was going to go but I kept my promise and that's what I'm trying to do, is be an avenue to help mothers as they go on their journey there someone here to help them get to where they need to go. I went by Bethel when they were in their other location and she had found she gathered up a bag of just your basics: shampoo and soap and trash bags and also a brand new baby bed for the baby so it got me excited about the baby and it all began there. Bethel Foundation is a nonprofit that works with single mothers and children and we provide a lot of services for mothers of children. I'm the coordinator for the community center and as such our mission is to help single mothers and their children, single fathers and their children, any person living in the house that may be disabled whether it be a mother, aunt, uncle, whatever. What we do is we give them food, we give them clothing, we give them dishes, pots, pans, silverware, towels, every little thing you could possibly think that's in your house that you take for granted they don't have. We have a scholarship program I really endorsed going back to school because through my own struggles I realized by getting that degree, even though it took a while it's worth it in the long run. A lot of times they will come in and they're just kinda lost or they're in an abusive relationship they're afraid to leave, they don't think they can make it or they had just left and they're struggling, they're woking a dead-end job and they know they want to go back to school but they don't think it's possible in so I've been able to talk a few of them into going back to school and letting them know it is possible being a single mom, you can get back in college and everything will be ok you got to do it for your kids. With our children we do the birthday club which for many of these children this may be all they get, they get a gift, the choice of a full-sized cake, vanilla, chocolate, chocolate-chip cookie, or even cupcakes and then balloons and they get a new gift and this helps moms because even though for most of us going and getting a birthday cake or gift may not be that big a deal but if you're a struggling mother that can be a huge deal. We have four camps throughout the year for boys that are free, it's an overnight camp from Friday to Sunday, we have a new camp for teenage girls that we just started last spring, we're hoping to get more of those started, the nutritional base camp, we have an educational conference for mothers if they need that. We have a boys camp called Camp Sunlight which is a weekend type camp for boys without dads and where they gather out here on the grounds and they learn an outdoor camping experience and they sleep in tents and sleeping bags, they get to fish in the pond and learn how to shoot BB guns and shoot archery, smores and Bible lessons and sharing time. It's a bonding time between men that are willing to be a weekend mentor to boys that don't have a dad and so we make all these camps free to these children because it's something that we realize mom's cannot afford to pay two or three hundred dollars for their child to a camp, so again, we want the children to be able to experience something fun and positive in their lives. I have also been the recipient of the Bethel, the Hope scholarship insisted me with some for books and tuition for school since I've been here I have completed my Bachelor's of business administration at UCO in Edmond and I am now pursuing my MBA and I should graduate December of this year. We have mothers from all walks, the mother that's really wanting to get ahead maybe she has gotten down on her luck, maybe she is escaping abuse and leaving with the clothes on her back for her and her children and started over uh... these mothers they just need some help and direction in getting there, like getting a scholarship to go to school, that may be something that can buy books they don't have the money for the books but it can help them in that study process or pay for a class or to get some clothes for her kids that grow like weeds and is not making that kind of money to keep up with their growth. There could be a lot of things that she could be working again between paydays and doesn't have food. There's so many different things that a mother could contact us for and receive help. As a volunteer when I first began I would just help with the clothing closet and I would help straighten up and hang up the winter clothes and kinda help clean up or assist others when they came into the clothing closet and help them find what they were looking for. Last year I was able to help out with their fundraising process for All-American Idol and so I came in and I did a lot of I guess business-to-business soliciting and I would help, I was looking for donations for their silent auction and so I really dove hands-in and got a lot of real-world experience being able to do that be a part of that huge event. Well as far as the donations I think anybody would realize that a nonprofit financial donations is always a big thing for nonprofit just so they can carry out the programs, so they can do the things that need to be done. Ninety percent of all the funds donated to Bethel go directly to our programs because we are such a volunteer-driven organization. This is how we're able to keep our overhead to a very minimum. Ours is not a temporary housing, ours is a home ownership program and that particular program is for mothers that are further down the road. We are in development stages of a 24 bed facility strictly for abused women. We're at the point where we're needing to raise funds and do not have all that yet and that would be a place for abused women to go to as a transitional house. We also have the community center where clothes is always appreciated, shoes, small appliances, household items, we have a furniture, appliances and car program. They need is great it is overwhelming. I spoke to Linda one time and out of curiosity asked her how many people did we service she said well I can't tell you this year but I can tell you last year, with our camps and all the different activities we handled over six thousand men, women and children. We need volunteers for the camps men volunteers for the boys camps we can always use volunteers to help sort out clothing in the clothing closet, to put away food, we can always find something for somebody to do. If you want something to make your heart feel good, if you want a feel good-type of volunteer position where your actually genuinely helping people that truly need it Bethel is a good place to do that. I've had a lot of different positions basically in sales but I find this I look forward to going to work, I come home exhausted but if we have if we've helped two mothers or if we help ten or eleven that's one of my goals and I put my whole heart and soul into it. They need a lot of supportive relationships not just from the father of the children but family members and friends that that they can call in the middle of the night say when the baby has a fever you can't leave the house with the baby to go get medicine you gotta have some friends that you can call on that will be there for you. Also, just a mentor, somebody that is positive and that is successful in life and has good ideas and helps you out of, has good, positive ideas to help you out of your situation. For the single mother that's at the bottom I've been there, I know the hurt, the pain and the difficulty of maybe asking for help because maybe sometimes it's not easy to do but that's why we're here we're not here to judge you or to criticize you or because everybody's going through something we just want to reach our hand out to you to give you hope and to let you know we'll do everything we can to help you. I found my cause. I found my cause. I have found my cause. I found my cause. Wouldn't you like to help a single mom climb out of that pit of despair by helping her and her kids? You can do that with the Bethel Foundation to find out how just log on the Found Causes dot com. You've just witnessed real solutions to real problems but in order to improve our city you have to get involved, so keep watching each week find a cause you can connect to because no matter who you are you can make a difference and remember along the way someone has helped you so now you can pay back and change a life after all, you could be the answer to someone's prayer and then you will have found your cause.