As staff and clients return to our downtown facility, the day to day operations at Guiding Light are slowly returning to a “new” normal. A small number of outside visitors and volunteers are coming through the doors as well. Today, long-time Guiding Light donor and volunteer, Jennifer, stopped by 255 Division Avenue to help out.
Jennifer has been volunteering at Guiding Light for three years. She came in today to help write donor letters and to carry out data-entry work for our Development team. When asked why she volunteers for Guiding Light, Jennifer paused and replied by saying “Oh you’re going to make me cry.”
“I’ve always had a heart for this place,” she said, “I believe in the mission.” Jennifer believes that the culture at Guiding Light is different than other missions or shelters. She believes in our unique philosophy of social outreach and how we motivate the men enrolled in our Back to Work and Recovery programs to be accountable for their own destiny. “I have seen and encountered the changes in the men that stay here,” she says.
Jennifer also likes how we encourage men to develop their relationship with God and to heal not just physically and mentally, but spiritually as well. “When you stay here…you’re held responsible and you have benchmarks to meet. They take their time here and teach you to learn how to live in a community.”
Volunteers like Jennifer dedicate their time because they believe in the unique and holistic work of social change that takes place at Guiding Light. Men that come here for help don’t just come to have their basic needs met, they are given time to develop an entirely different way of living.
