Source: Hometown Life
Author: Hometown Life
A group of students decided that they wanted to make a difference this past summer and started a project to help homeless people in Detroit. The group consisted of four students: Caitlin Parsons and Supreet Nirman, who attend Mercy High School in Farmington Hills; and Dylan Parsons and Zachary Peurach who attend Detroit Catholic Central High School in Novi.
The students have been involved in other community service programs before and often participated in programs where they would volunteer at homeless shelters or distribute food to the homeless through St. Aloysius in downtown Detroit.
But these students wanted to do more this time to help the homeless, especially after learning that there are over 600,000 homeless people in America and that Detroit has close to 40,000.
Caitlin Parsons began researching various nonprofit organizations that helped homeless people in Detroit and stumbled across the Empowerment Plan, which was founded by Veronika Scott about five years ago. The Empowerment Plan aims to help build a better life for those trapped in the cycle of homelessness. The organization hires homeless parents from local shelters to become full-time seamstresses so that they can earn a stable income, find secure housing, and gain independence for themselves and for their families.
The individuals hired are trained to manufacture a coat that transforms into a sleeping bag and a bag. The coats are distributed to homeless people living on the streets at no cost. The organization believes in giving second chances to those who want it and providing warmth to those who need it (www.empowermentplan.org).
The purpose of the students’ project was two-fold. First they wanted to raise awareness about the Empowerment Plan and its objectives; and, secondly, the students raised funds through donations to help the Empowerment Plan’s mission. After the students visited the facilities where the coats are made and heard some of the workers' stories they developed a strategy that involved several methods to create awareness and raise funds.
They created a GoFundMe webpage, wrote letters to Michigan businesses, conducted fundraisers and went door-to-door to local companies and businesses. The students also displayed the coat at Tre Sorelle in downtown Farmington during Founders Festival to create awareness about the Empowerment Plan.
It is estimated that the students reached more than 5,000 people from all of their different methods from online to direct mail.
"The students worked tirelessly over the course of the summer to bring added awareness to The Empowerment Plan," said Erika George, director of development at the Empowerment Plan. "I admire their dedication to not only supporting our mission and their commitment to serving the homeless across the city of Detroit."
Caitlin Parsons said: Most of these people had not previously heard about the Empowerment Plan but now they do.“ The students also raised $10,300 in donations from individuals and businesses. Netlink Software Group, which is an IT Services company based in Madison Heights, matched the donations raised and was a Gold Sponsor at the Empowerment Plan’s Annual Event at Garden Theater in Detroit.
"It is wonderful and inspiring to see such young people with a passion for helping others take action and get involved,” said Anurag Shrivastava, president of Netlink.
The funds that the students donated will produce 100 coats, which the students hope to distribute themselves to the homeless over the next several months with the assistance of the Empowerment Plan organization.