Mens Emergency Shelter

• meet their immediate needs
• get medical and family services partner referrals
• work through issues to restore their lives, income and a place to live

Can you help us today, with significant increase in needs in Houston this summer?

On behalf of Star of Hope, I would like to extend special congratulations to Mark Camero and Kevin Sweat from Boy Scout Troop 642, which meets at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. Few scouts would tackle such demanding projects or set such a high standard of excellence! 

In addition to constructing large storage units for our Women & Family Emergency Shelter, Eagle Scout Mark Camero collected 1,408 children’s books. Many of the books were new and they all will provide many hours of reading fun and adventure for the children who come through our doors.

Eagle Scout Kevin Sweat designed and built a beautiful playground seating area and walkway for the Transitional Living Center. Parents now have the perfect place to watch their little ones and their children feel more secure to play, learn and explore with mom or dad watching over them.

What a blessing it’s been for our mission to have an opportunity to work with several other awesome scouts.   This week, David Reeves delivered 15 wide, sturdy outdoor benches for the TLC cafeteria courtyard. Once he decided on a design and built a prototype, he had a small team cut the lumber on Day 1. He organized such a big crew for Day 2 that the project was completed in only two hours! These benches will circle the trees and provide clients with a shady place to enjoy our gorgeous weather.

Thomas Perez organized a party for children at the Transitional Living Center complete with Bible stories, crafts and refreshments. Of course, the children had a blast….so did Thomas and his team! Alex Collier also focused on the children and collected more than 800 books for five – thirteen year olds.

Our partnership with Eagle Scout candidates isn’t over – we continue to be tremendously blessed by these fine young men! Kendall Bruce is building benches for the Women & Family Emergency Shelter.  And Brian Howell has designed a bench seating area to beautify the Yellowstone side of the TLC campus. His crew will be here in two weeks! 

A variety of project options makes Star of Hope the perfect site for your next scout, corporate or team-building project. Contact the Volunteer Services Department to discuss a project for your group.

Community Service Opportunities Houston

Why do people throughout our community volunteer at Star of Hope? Just ask Ann, a retired social worker, about the benefits of volunteering. 

Ann began volunteering in the Computer Learning Center at our Transitional Living Center in 2005. Although she loved helping clients who were eager to learn new computer skills, the timing just didn’t fit with Ann’s busy schedule. She moved to our Women & Family Emergency Shelter where she has been assisting with intake and referrals for our overnight guests ever since. Here’s an e-mail she sent to Latasha Smith, the CLC instructor with whom she worked:

Hi Latasha,

Those lessons you taught me in Excel have come in handy. I am using Excel for a project that I am helping with at the Women & Family Emergency Shelter. Thanks for showing me how to do that! I guess you can count me as another Excel success!  I would not know what to do at all without the lessons you gave me.

Blessings,
Ann

A flexible schedule and the opportunity to learn new skills are only two of the benefits that volunteering at Star of Hope can add to your life as you partner with us to serve Houston’s homeless men, women and children.

Learn more at Community Service Houston

Recently, while running errands, my husband pulled the car into a Chevron station. As he filled up the tank, my attention focused on the poster hanging beside each pump, which showcased the many ways Chevron volunteers contribute “human energy” to make our community a better place. Not only was I delighted that local Chevron volunteers were recognized, but also thrilled that Star of Hope was included – both the top, left- and right-hand photos were taken during Star of Hope projects. 

We first worked with Chevron volunteers during their 2009 Humankind Week, and thus, a wonderful, new partnership was born. Throughout 2010, volunteers from Chevron’s Black Employee Network assisted in many areas, such as the kitchens at all three facilities and the Christmas Workshop. 

During the sizzling-hot, triple-digit, Houston summer, it was a funny sight when several Chevron volunteers arrived for work all bundled up in heavy jackets, knit hats and gloves! But they came prepared to clean the walk-in freezer at our Women & Family Emergency Shelter. While they cleaned the freezer and others assisted with lunch preparations, several more volunteers baked a scrumptious treat. You can imagine the eager anticipation of shelter clients as the aroma of mouth-watering fudge brownies wafted through the air!

In the fall of 2010, Chevron groups celebrated their Humankind Week by working on major projects at Star of Hope. Volunteers at the Women & Family Emergency Shelter painted several atrium spaces and cleaned out storage areas. Working in shifts over two days, another Chevron group prepped and painted the iron fence surrounding the perimeter of the Men’s Development Center. Thanks to the generosity of Chevron and the hard work of their dedicated volunteers, we will spend less on facility maintenance and have many more dollars to directly help Houston’s homeless men, women and children!

We look forward to additional opportunities to partner with Chevron and the many other volunteers in our community who have a heart for the homeless. 2011 will be an amazing year as together we serve those in need.

Learn how you can help Houston's homeless with Star of Hope. Visit Community Service Volunteers Houston.

For the last 20 years, the Hard Rock Cafe has closed its doors on Thanksgiving Day. Although this popular downtown Houston eatery is closed to the public, the kitchen and waitstaff are quite busy. Instead of celebrating Thanksgiving with their own families, everyone at the Hard Rock volunteers on their day off to host a gourmet dinner for clients at Star of Hope’s Women & Family Emergency Shelter and the Transitional Living Center. This year, the Hard Rock team was joined by another very special team – Head Coach James Dickey brought the University of Houston Men’s Basketball team to help. The UH players, still in their warm-ups after an exhausting practice session, autographed posters and visited with our families before heading inside to wait tables. 

The UH basketball coaches and players weren’t the only Cougars waiting tables for Star of Hope clients during the holidays. UH athletic director Mack Rhoades was joined by his family as they helped serve Christmas dinner at the Men’s Development Center. Rhoades and his family set out desserts and filled drink glasses as they helped make special Christmas memories for men who are often forgotten. 

"It's a very humbling experience," said Rhoades.  "It makes you realize what you have and it's a blessing to be part of this."

Thanks to the UH Athletic Department for reaching out to Houston’s homeless men, women and children during the holidays! Merry Christmas and Go Coogs!

Get involved with Star of Hope and help homeless men, women and families in our community. Find opportunities of interest to you at Community Service Volunteers Houston.

Imagine what it must be like to be out on the streets with no place to call home. Frantically, you search for shelter and a safe place to fall asleep. That’s when you remember that someone told you about Star of Hope. In desperation, you put your last two quarters in the payphone, hoping with everything you have left inside that you can talk with someone, that you don't get a recording.

Although most of us are used to automated telephone systems, navigating menus can be a frustrating process. And if this is the only call you can make, it’s even worse. 

At Star of Hope, our goal is for every caller to reach a “live” voice – to get the help and answers each caller needs and deserves. To accomplish this goal, we opened a call center that is staffed entirely by volunteers. 

No one has taken a more active role in the call center than our friends from Willis of Texas, Inc. About 30 Willis employees staff both the morning and afternoon shifts every Wednesday. Thanks to Willis and other call center volunteers, each call is promptly answered by a friendly voice that’s filled with compassion. Once calls are answered, volunteers remain on the line until callers receive the help they need - even praying with callers. Volunteers are not interested in the number of calls they answer, but in delivering the best possible service.  It is far more than simply answering the phone, it is a ministry! 

Our friends at Willis have been very generous with their time, and yet, found a way to do even more during the holidays. In addition to volunteering in our kitchens and at the Christmas Workshop, they also raised $5,550 to purchase gifts for moms and dads at our Women & Family Emergency Shelter and men in the recovery programs at the Men’s Development Center. Not only will there be gifts for the children, but for the adults, too. No one has been forgotten!

During my eight years working for Star of Hope Mission, I have watched over and over as homeless clients move from virtually “no hope” with total dependence, to beginning their independent walk in a new life.  Star of Hope is not just a Soup Kitchen in Houston!  We offer Christian Ministries with such services as drug rehabilitation, emergency homeless services, parenting classes, career building classes, for homeless persons and for battered women, men and for families.  We offer care for men, single women and for families at our three homeless shelters and transitional living centers.

Last week I got to meet a young woman who lived here at Star of Hope twelve years ago.  When she came here, she was 4 years old, and she got into a ballet dance program offered by a volunteer.  Her family got back on their feet and now she is married and has three beautiful children.  She was present at the opening of our newly decorated Intake area at Star of Hope’s Women & Family Emergency Shelter.  It was a real blessing to visit and to see how well she is doing now.  She and her family had received a chance to get back on their feet, and they had taken it! 

I hope that you weren’t ever homeless!  But if you had been, wouldn’t it be great to know that there was a place, where people would listen to you, pray with you, cry with you, and try to meet your every need!  Star of Hope is such a place!

Would you consider partnering with us, through offering a prayer for the less fortunate, and through making a contribution?  You can go to Charitable Donations Houston to make a contribution.

 

It’s been a year since I received the first e-mail from Jeannie Eisenhart.  Jeannie works for Crowley Maritime in Florida and is on the Board of the National Business Travel Association. 

NBTA members include airlines, hotels and resorts, travel agents and corporate travel departments, food service companies and temporary corporate apartment homes – just to name a few. Their 2010 international convention & exposition was scheduled for Houston, and for the first time ever, NBTA wanted the agenda to include a community service project. After the Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau recommended Star of Hope and NBTA executives from Washington, D.C. toured our facilities, an amazing partnership was born!

NBTA featured Star of Hope on their website and urged each member’s support. Without a track record, NBTA did not know what the response would be. But they wanted to provide members with a variety of ways to help Houston’s homeless men, women and children:

·         * As members completed the convention registration form, they were asked to make a $10 donation to Star of Hope.

·         * NBTA members were given a list of needed items – such as toiletries, towels, sheets, clothing and canned goods – and asked to make an in-kind donation.

·         * And members were asked to sign-up for a project at our Transitional Living Center – painting client apartments and other living areas, writing notes of encouragement for client mailboxes and assisting in the kitchen.

Deliveries arrived from across the country – large and small boxes of donated items. As our Women & Family Emergency Shelter slept a growing number of adults and children in overflow during the dangerous summer heat, these donations were a special blessing.

We worked with the incredible NBTA staff for almost a year, planning for every detail. And there was a lot of work happening behind the scenes. NBTA secured cash donations from ADTRAV and Continental Airlines. Someone from Lowe’s contacted Werner & Co. on behalf of NBTA. Werner generously donated more than 50 ladders for the painting project. And Aramark donated drinks and snacks for NBTA volunteers. 

After such a tremendous team effort, I was eager to meet all of the people from across the country who worked so tirelessly to bless Star of Hope. I wanted to put faces with the names and personally thank each one of our new friends. Project day could not arrive soon enough!

Make plans to serve Houston’s homeless men, women and children.

Call 713-440-5322 or 713-440-5301 to discuss volunteer project options for your group.
Community Volunteer Opportunities Houston

The Coalition for the Homeless in Houston recently published its 2010 Enumeration of those in our city who are homeless.  Over 40,000 have experienced homelessness in the past year in our city, up 20% from 2009.  With all the Star of Hope has been seeing since spring, it's not surprising that the number of homeless families has doubled since 2009. Now families make up 21% of Houston's homeless population.  The economic downturn has filled Houston's network of emergency bed providers and most transitional living facilities are at or near capacity.  We therefore are finding it much more difficult to find agencies to which to refer families from our emergency shelters.  The system is in gridlock.

I wrote a few weeks ago, wondering if Summer, 2010 would ever end.  I guess you could say the weather is moderating, but we are still sleeping 80 to 100 a night in overflow on the floor of our Women & Family Emergency Shelter downtown, even in mid-September!  This is an extraordinary pattern for this time of year and with the economy still ailing it may be a while until things return to "normal."

As we gear up for the Holidays, please keep us in mind if you'd like to volunteer, do a kids' toy drive or make a special financial gift for our men, women and children at Star of Hope this Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And, most of all, please pray for those who are starting over in the safety of Star of Hope.  God is "At Work" here every day, changing lives, one by one. Come and serve with us, and you will see and be blessed yourself!  I guarantee you'll leave here counting your blessings and will have helped someone through your service!