Paula Peeling writes:
Our St. Paul’s community recently put on an evening of Valentine’s love with the residents of Downtown Safe Haven. Downtown Safe Haven, a program of Episcopal Community Services (ECS), operates two Safe Haven residences: Downtown Safe Haven, and Uptown Safe Haven.The ECS Safe Haven programs are transitional housing residences serving people with mental illness who are chronically homeless. In addition to providing a safe home, the program offers case management and assistance in securing a stable income, permanent housing, and valuable life skills. Our director of Children, Youth, and Families, Robin Taylor, designed a 4 week curriculum with our children to discuss, serve, and reflect on safe housing. This included a visit to meet the real people who are Safe Haven residents.
On February 11, Robin led a group from the Cathedral to Downtown Safe Haven for a Valentine’s potluck dinner and fellowship. Here is the lovely letter we received from the program manager after the event sharing food, decorating cookies, and making cards.
On behalf of the residents and staff here at Downtown Safe Haven I wanted to say thank you for everything you did to help put the Valentine’s Party together this past Wednesday. Deann, Robin, and Jennifer, your efforts made it a truly special evening for our community. Peter…the meal was wonderful! People are STILL raving about the lasagna you provided. And the volunteers from St. Paul’s Cathedral were absolutely amazing with the unconditional support provided to our staff and residents. We were truly happy to be a part of it.
22 residents were in attendance that night and between the wonderful food, side dishes, desserts and activities I can safely say they enjoyed the evening thoroughly.
Lesslie, thank you so much for attending. It was wonderful to have you join the celebration. Robin and Jennifer, please thank all of the volunteers who joined in. It means a great deal to all of us here to know that there are people out there who support the hard work our residents put in on their recovery efforts and permanent housing goals. I hope we have an opportunity to collaborate on events like this in the future.
Have a wonderful Friday everyone and a fantastic weekend!!Respectfully,
Dennis Crosby, M.A.
Program Supervisor
Downtown Safe Haven
