As seasons change, many families discover the need to refresh their wardrobes: children have grown, last summer’s shoes are worn out, and there’s not a matching set of socks to be found. For low-wage earners, these needs can wreck a carefully balanced budget. Here are four ways you can help these neighbors meet their basic needs this season.
Participation in a poverty simulation: fast moving, immersive, stressful, real. Everything that can go wrong WILL go wrong. But you will be left thinking.
Crisis Assistance Ministry prides itself on its core values of Dignity, Integrity, Respect, Empathy, Compassion, and Trust (D.I.R.E.C.T,). I experienced all these aspects firsthand throughout my internship, both with employees and those the organization helps.
When I wake up in the morning, I am not worried about whether I am going to struggle to pay my rent this month. I am not worried about whether my lights are going to get turned off or if I won’t have water in the next couple of days. When I wake up in the morning, my first worry is if I am late for work or class, and that is a privilege I didn’t even know I had until I began working at Crisis Assistance Ministry this summer.
Volunteering is more than slipping a shirt onto a hanger and sliding it onto a rack. Volunteering is giving back to your community, even though you may never see the results first-hand. But volunteers at Crisis Assistance Ministry go where their hearts lead them.
Our neighbors who come to Crisis Assistance Ministry for help are hard workers. They know how to stretch a dollar beyond the breaking point. But the odds are often stacked against them. Any small thing can send the budget spiraling out of control. That’s when you come in. Just a few minutes and a few dollars from you now can change their lives in that moment of crisis.
The world is hot, but it’s even hotter inside of cities, partly due to the “urban heat island,” which occurs “when cities replace natural land cover with dense concentrations of pavement, buildings, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat.” It’s an issue of inequity that often directly affects customers who visit Crisis Assistance Ministry.
A great playlist can help keep the memories going, and a playlist is another budget-friendly way to enjoy summer. The money you save can go farther in your gift to help your neighbors in Charlotte-Mecklenburg #savehome by meeting their basic needs, providing emergency financial assistance toward rent or utility bills, household goods and appliances.
