The Colorado Springs Christian Church began an official chapter of HOPE worldwide in July 2009. In the past year HOPE worldwide: Colorado Springs Chapter has had many opportunities to serve those in need, but there are two programs in particular that have had significant impact.
The first is our “Backpack Service” that we hold annually in a downtown park. Each fall we meet for an outdoor church service in a park that is a meeting place for many of the homeless people in our community. After our service we distribute backpacks, clothes, bedding and toiletry items to the homeless who gather. We work all year to collect backpacks, sleeping bags, coats, gloves, socks and other items that a person might need to survive sleeping outside in a Colorado winter. In 2009 we were able to serve approximately 300 people! We are now in the process of collecting for next Backpack Service coming this fall.
The second program that we have seen impact our community is called Hope Packs. We built on our success with the homeless backpacks and worked to strengthen our core competency of collecting and distributing to those in need. This came to fruition in the form of backpacks for foster children. Most of the children who enter foster care arrive with very little, and what they do have is most often stuffed into a plastic bag. Everything they have ever known is gone. The foster children receive a backpack filled with fun things that is just for them. We provide foster children with their own backpack, blanket, toys, and age appropriate comfort items. Giving these Hope Packs when children are in transition makes them feel cared for, loved, and accepted, and helps offer them a sense of ownership in an uncertain time.
On January 31 we began our second collection drive. This time we passed out 40 backpacks to our volunteers with a list of items to collect and waited to see how it would go. This is the first time we had organized our drive in this way, and we didn’t know what kind of response to expect. Within 24 hours we had requests from two volunteers for additional backpacks because their employers wanted to fill multiple backpacks. One of these was a middle school that has now donated close to 100 filled backpacks! A Marine who works with the Toys for Tots program heard what we were doing and donated 200 brand new toys. Over the past few months we have seen many amazing examples of peoples’ generosity. God has multiplied our original goal of 40 Hope Pack into 150! We have been sharing these backpacks with foster care agencies, an adoption agency that brought 20 children from Haiti to Colorado Springs, and the Department of Human Services.
Here is a heartwarming account from a social worker who received Hope Packs this year. It really sums up what this program is all about.
Today I had a 17 year old in the office in need of placement and I gave him a back pack with a football, hygiene stuff and those track things that go on shoes. There were also some magazines and a movie that he watched while he was waiting for the foster parents to come get him. He told me that this was the only belonging he had because he had left his home in the middle of the night due to an emergency and was unable to take any of his own belongings. He asked me if he could pick out a backpack for his 9 year old brother who was going to another home and had not gotten a backpack. It was sheer joy to watch him pick out another backpack for his younger brother and know that he would be able to give it to him when they saw each other this afternoon during a visit. These back packs have been a big delight for both our kids and caseworkers as well. It is likely that we will be out of them by mid summer so if you have more, we would love to have you bring them in another month or so. This is probably one of the best things for our kids going into foster care that anyone has ever given us! Thanks again.
Marian
PS I am sending you some of the pictures from when you were here making the special delivery.
God has been doing great things in Colorado Springs! He has blessed the projects of HOPE worldwide: Colorado Springs Chapter and has multiplied the efforts of the volunteers. He has moved to allow us to serve the homeless and foster children in a meaningful way while being a shining light for Him in our community.