A large part of any nonprofit organization involves educating the community about issues important to the organization. The Gathering Place is one such organization. It could be considered a day shelter, for women and women with children to come for help. Traditional homeless shelters open their doors at night, but once its day time people are asked to leave. Having a home is one of the biggest parts of most people’s lives. It gives someone a place to sleep, cook, relax, keep their stuff, and most of all piece of mind. When someone has no home to go to or no one else to turn for help, they may not know what to do. The gathering place offers homeless women and their children a place to go when they don’t have anywhere else to go. It helps give women the things they need so they can try to build their lives back up.
The Gathering Place being a place such as a day home for women and their children faces many issues. When women come to The Gathering Place they are offered several things to help build their life back together. They receive a meal during the day and are offered a monthly allowance of food they can take with them. They are offered private shower facilities for the women and children. There are washers and driers to do laundry and The Gathering Place offers people phones to use. One of the hardest things for a homeless to person to do is to find a job without a phone number or address. Without these two things it is hard for an employer to reach someone applying for a job. Day care facilities are also offered so mothers have a safe place to take their children. This is important because it can be very hard on a mother when they have to worry about their children being safe. If they don’t have this worry they can concentrate on doing something for them.
Along with all of these things The Gathering Place offers support and guidance to women who don’t have anyone else to give it to them. This can help these women grown their life for them and their children. To offer all these things takes a lot of time, effort, and money from several people. This is where the issues that are important to the organization come in. The issues that I see important to The Gathering Place that I think is important they educate the community about are things like the money it takes to offer these services. To have a building so close to downtown Denver that offers so many helpful things to these women and children costs a lot of money. Everything from food, to clothes, to electricity and water cost money. I think it is important for The Gathering Place to educate the community about the services it offers. How this organization gives homeless women and women with children a place to try and build their lives. By educating people about these wonderful services The Gathering Place offers, people or other organizations in the community may decide to donate money for this great cause.
Another issue that surrounds The Gathering Place is the issue of only having so much room. Especially in the summers this place can become overcrowded. When this happens and The Gathering Place reaches its maximum capacity, they are forced to turn people away. Instead of just turning people away they would like to offer these families who have nowhere else to go something to do during the day. I feel that mothers bonding with their children can play a very important role in someone’s life. Especially because I raised by my mother and grandmother. I feel very lucky to have the bonds that I share with them. When a mother doesn’t have a home for her children and is always worrying about where they will sleep, spend the day, or when they will eat next, a mother does not have time to bond with her kids. She is stressed out and worried which children pick up on. Being able to offer women and their children something to do during the day would be much more helpful than just turning them away. This issue is another that I feel is important for The Gathering Place to educate the community about.
I have only been to The Gathering Place and met with Justine once. From what I see it seems like this organization does a good job at educating the community about the services it provides and the money it takes to provide them. For the second issue, I know this is a newer idea that this organization is working on. This is where me and the other five students working with The Gathering Place comes in. We are making plans to go to organization throughout the community and educate them about the gathering place and its limited space. We will be trying to convince other organizations such as the zoo, aquarium, and museums to donate whatever they can The Gathering Place. Our goal is to convince organization to donate entry, food, or whatever they can so instead of turning mothers and their kids away, The Gathering Place will have something to offer them rather than just turning them away.
I have not had much experience yet with The Gathering Place but I think they are doing a good job at educating the community about the issues that arise in their type of nonprofit organization. I think they could do a little more on educating the community about the second issue, but that is why they have us. Through the use of our service learning class The Gathering Place is starting to educate the community about another issue that faces this wonderful organization.
