COLORADO SPRINGS — There is a new “how to” guidebook for helping the homeless.
It is the work of current and former leaders at the Springs Rescue Mission.
“What can I do?” said former Springs Rescue Mission, CEO, Larry Yonker, “So hopefully it'll be something that everybody will be able to say, I can do something, I can do my part in making this community better.”
The book is titled “Meeting Homelessness with Hope: One Community’s Response”.
The Springs Rescue Mission current CEO Jack Briggs is also among the co-authors.
“As we have progressed here in Colorado Springs in addressing homelessness, poverty and addiction, we've had some success.”
The intent of the book is to offer lessons to others who want to be part of helping resolve homeless issues.
“We all got together and said, let's put this down on paper,” said Briggs, “How we do what we do as a community here in Colorado Springs. It's not just the rescue mission, it's all of those organizations that are in the community, city leadership, businesses, foundations, all kind of come together to work together.”
He says everyday community members can also learn a lot from the book.
The authors want to help others learn that offering kindness and compassion is important but can also oversimplify the issue.
Solutions are not one size fits all, they a most often complex and require community wide collaboration.
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