Open Door and Next Door Shelters

Dear Friends,

The demand for the shelter and services we offer has been high this year. In the first nine months of 2002 homeless young adults stayed with us for more nights of shelter than in all of 2001. In August, the Next Door was full every single night of the month. I don't remember that happening before.

Last year our remodeling projects limited our capacity for awhile, but this year we have been able to take full advantage of our refurbished facilities by operating at full capacity every day.

I am often invited to meet with local church members to talk about our partnership with Kalamazoo's homeless young adults. Occasionally people come up to me afterwards and mention that they were homeless once or that a son or daughter has been homeless and stayed with us.

This summer I was invited to spend a Sunday morning with Hope Reformed Church on Kalamazoo's west side to report on our work. After the service I met Lana Loedeman. She and her family participated in weekly potluck suppers with Open Door folks in the early seventies.

A girl in High School had been coming to the drop-in program and had no place to stay. We did not have a shelter for women yet and there were no other shelters for women in town. The Open Door staff asked Lana and her family if this young woman could move in with them. They took her in, cared for her, and struggled in partnership with her.

This summer they received a letter from her and a few weeks later she came back to Kalamazoo and I got to meet her. I also met her daughter, who is now about the age her mother was when she was homeless 30 years ago.

This former guest lives in the Southeast. It was a powerful experience for her to revisit this place where she found shelter and personal help in a vulnerable period in her life. It was powerful for me to meet a guest from years ago who is paying back, with interest, the investment the Open Door made in her life. She is a loving and stable mom, a dedicated leader in her community, and she has been selected by her church to go to seminary to be trained as a pastor.

Earlier this year we got a letter from a parent of another former guest. This parent wrote to the Open Door staff:

"I wanted to write to you and thank you for helping my son through some really rocky times in his life while staying at the Open Door. By encouraging him to work, finish the GED, stay linked to AA, save money, and take responsibility for his behaviors, you are doing what I think only mature healthy men can do for younger men -- affirm them as people able to take care of themselves, make positive changes in their lives, and pass on to others when the time is right the affirmation and blessing that they have received. My son has grown in so many ways. Thanks for being a big part of his growth process. Thanks for blessing him with the Father's love. It is my hope that some day he will be able to pass on the blessings he's received from God in you to another young man in need of God's blessing the same way he's received it from you."

Many of our guests this year have used their time with us to real advantage, working hard on several fronts to break out of poverty and homelessness. And many are succeeding.

We can see some of this success by looking at our staff! At both shelters previous guests are now on our staff. These former guests focused on a range of issues in their lives while they were staying at the Next Door and Open Door. Now they are using their experiences to help other young men and women. I am deeply grateful to them for the insight, skill, and vision they bring to our work.

Guests with long-term addictions have been able to grow in recovery this year. For some the big achievement is honestly facing the reality of their addiction and its destructiveness, and thus beginning the journey toward recovery. For others, it is the struggle to build a life beyond addiction. For others who have been clean and sober for years, it is taking care of important personal business they ignored in years of addiction.

Staff members and volunteers with personal experience of substance abuse, addiction, and recovery can speak with special authority about the journey of recovery via the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and reliance on the love, direction, and care of God.

We have also seen success in the area of personal savings this year. More guests than ever have saved several hundred dollars or more and have been able to move into apartments at the end of their stays.

Last winter at our annual board and staff retreat we decided to focus on education more than we had been. Without a High School diploma or GED our guests are often limited to jobs that won't ever pay enough for them to be able to rent an apartment. This increased emphasis on education has led to some exciting and gratifying moments. A 32-year-old guest who has been drug-free for six years was stuck in dead-end, low-wage jobs. She started smoking marijuana when she was 8 years old and dropped out of High School in 9th grade. This fall she enrolled in a local Alternative High School program.

As you can imagine, it took great courage and humility to show up for High School as a 32-year-old, 18 years after dropping out. That first day was hard, but she loves going to class now. We particularly enjoy hearing about her interesting art projects. She goes to school in the morning and works in the afternoon and evening at a fast food restaurant. We are so proud of her.

Even short-term education has helped some of our guests get higher wages. When you can go from $6.25 an hour at a fast food restaurant to $10 an hour as a certified nursing assistant, you are taking a big step toward financial stability.

Well, that's some of the news from the Open Door and Next Door this fall. Sincere thanks to all of you who help make it possible for us to keep our doors open.

Rick Stravers,
Executive Director