Volunteeers can make a difference in the lives of these families. In addition to furnishing meals, overnight hosting and other program requirements, volunteers do simple but immeasurably important things. They talk to guests. They listen to them. They treat them with respect.
Volunteers can be a source of hope.
They provide a context for the restoration of the human spirit, when hope has been lost. Homelessness is a profound and growing problem for our nation. Today, America is confronted with a homeless population whose magnitude could once have been caused only by a major economic depression. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, children and adults, have no place to call home. Today's homeless population is very diverse and goes beyond the stereotypes of bag ladies and skid row derelicts.