Newsletter Stories
May 19, 2009
Your Used Books (CD's and DVD's) Change Lives!
Books, books and more books.
Chris Megison, Solutions for Change
Because of you, the new Solutions for Change social microenterprise called Books for Real Change is off to a great start! In its first month since it was announced we've sold an average of 4 books per day at a profit of $2.66 per book. Every dollar raised through this effort will help us close the $7 per day gap that we need for each of 120 homeless kids living in our Solutions for Change year round programs. When you donate a book, CD or DVD your kindness will set into motion a series of powerful and life changing events.
The more books you give, the more people you put to work, the more children's lives you save, and the stronger you make Solutions for Change so that we can keep solving family homelessness for more kids and more communities. It's that simple. This is why we call it Books for Real Change.
The donated books, CD's and DVD's that we don't give to our families will put the unemployed parents (of those kids we are helping) to work sorting, cataloging, inventorying, listing and then selling on Amazon. This puts Solutions for Change more in control of our future and North County's vision to solve family homelessness one family, one community at a time. It helps us with the much needed donations required to transform children's lives. Thus your thoughtfulness literally reshapes futures for kids. Here at Solutions for Change, like the name suggests, we go way beyond just feeding and sheltering.
Our goal by midsummer is to be selling 20 books per day at an average $3 per book. And by year's end the goal is to be selling a whopping 120 books per day, one book for each one of the 120 homeless children helped every day, year round in our life changing programs that make up the innovative Solutions University. I want to take this opportunity to remind you, or perhaps share with you for the first time, what my purpose is in asking you for your involvement with us.
Just like the name suggests, Solutions for Change is about solving family homelessness for kids and communities, one family, one community at a time. Since 1999 the Solutions for Change programs have led 542 homeless families out of homelessness and back into our communities re-housed and re-staked as employed and healthy families.
The Solutions University is where we equip the families with the skills, knowledge and resources that they need to permanently defeat homelessness. Its hard work and that is why we call it the Solutions University because just like in a university you have to work hard to do well. Here at Solutions for Change it's not about how many bowls of soup we can serve, shelter beds we can fill, or people we can service, it's about what we do after the soup bowls and shelter beds. It's about equipping families to change their lives so they can feed, care and house themselves. That is what Solutions for Change is all about. And that is what your involvement with us will result in.lives saved.
By involving you through efforts like Books for Real Change and working with you and the whole community we truly believe, though it may sound crazy to some, that we can solve this thing for kids and communities, permanently. As you might imagine, battling the effects of homelessness on families and communities during this awful recession is a really tough fight. That is why I need your help right now. The good news is I am not asking you to do the real heavy work. You don't have to get on the front lines with me (unless you want to). We've built five buildings on two acres that house the main part of our Solutions University campus and we bought and rehabbed another building a mile away where the families start their journey out of homelessness. A lot of the real heavy lifting and hard work has already been done. I'm not asking (though if you have one to give I'll gladly accept it) for your cars, boats, planes and RV's, I just need your books, CD's and DVD's.
I'm just asking you for your help to get as many books as you can in here. This simple act of your kindness in helping us get books will help equip us with the resources that we must have in order to reshape futures for homeless children. Think of the Solutions University like any other school. What if you walked into your classroom and there was no teacher, no desk, no facilities and no lights? Okay, maybe if you are a high school student you might think that the no teacher thing would be sweet, but seriously, there wouldn't be much learning now would there? Exactly. We need our teachers, coaches, facilities and lights so that we can provide families with the counseling, coaching, employment training, parenting classes, recovery courses, youth programs and homes to help solve their homelessness for good. Books for Real Change will help us do this. It's in your hands.
I know you can do it. Are you a member of a civic organization, a church or a student at one of our local schools? Do you work at a bank, a restaurant, a retail store or a company in one of our industrial parks? How about starting a book drive? How about challenging your classmates, congregation or coworkers to raise 120 books per day for one week: one book for every child helped here at Solutions for Change each day? Or 120 books a day for three days? Or 120 books a day for one month? You decide how many futures you want to help us rebuild.
Download a flyer here, print it and slap it on a box and place it in your classroom, church or business. We would prefer if you can drop the books off to our main campus at 722 W. California Ave in Vista but if you have a lot of books and can't deliver them here yourself don't hesitate to call us at 760-941-6545 and we will come pick them up for you.
We have a long way to go and that is why Tammy and I need your help to get more books in here and to get the word out there so more people give us more books. Will you help us reach our goal of 100,000 books in 1000 days? Together we can solve family homelessness for kids and communities in North San Diego County. There is a place for everyone to get involved. You decide the impact.
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Climbing up, and out of homelessness
One teenager's story of beating family homelessness
by Markeith Bowman
So it starts when I come home from school one day in 2004 and couldn't open the door. That's when being homeless started for me and my family. After that we stayed at my grandma's house and friends of my mom's houses until we started hotel hopping. I was 13 so I can say I was being selfish most of the time because I wanted all my stuff out of storage, constantly nagging my mom not knowing how stressful it was for her.
So after staying in hotels for about a few weeks we moved into the Solution's shelter on East Vista Way. Once we did I realized we were struggling and things were getting hard for us. I was still finishing 8th grade when we first moved in so I was embarrassed about being homeless. Just my friend Marcus knew what I was going through because I could trust him enough to tell him. It was good to have him too because I would go to his house on the weekends to get out of there. Two months being in the shelter and my mom gives birth to my sister Amaya. I wasn't happy because I was already helping with the other kids and I didn't want to help with another. Since we were together in the shelter all the time I did anyways.
So a month after Amaya was born I graduated from 8th grade and I was ready for high school. That summer I spent most of my time away from the shelter because I was doing summer school and football. So I would leave early and come home late. I liked it though because I was always with friends and away from the shelter. It took a lot of my mind. To get to school and football I had to catch the bus every day. I hated it but as long as I had my music which got me through three bus rides there and three bus rides back. I did this for months straight. Once school started we were still in the shelter and I was still embarrassed about it.
Until November of 2004 when we moved into the apartments (the Solutions Family Center), and everything felt so much better. Getting into those apartments was the best thing to happen to my family that year and I'm sure for the other families who moved in. We still had a long way to go. I had to step my game up in school because I wasn't doing well. I was slacking and I know I shouldn't have been. So I picked my grades up and passed all my classes the second time around and finished my freshmen year off good.
That summer I didn't do much. No school or football. I just listened to music and whatever else kept me busy. Sophomore year was just the same as last year. The only thing that changed for me was getting taller and meeting new friends and I had a girlfriend. I never told my mom about any girlfriends because she would bug me about it. Those people I met that year made school easy for me because they gave me reasons to go to school and that was just to be happy. My whole sophomore year was pretty cool nothing special happened for me but I finished another year and only two more for me. By now our family had graduated the Solutions for Change apartments and moved into a real nice place that Solutions helped us get because mom was working real hard. Mom agreed to stay in this partnership thing with Solutions for like another 500 days so now we lived in a bigger place but mom was still going to classes and staying involved with Solutions. She told us kids it was like going to school that she wasn't going to quit until she completed everything Solutions was asking her to do.
My mom finally got a car too so that made our lives so much easier especially for her. It helped her with work and everything. My mom was working hard too and it really hit me sometime this year that she had all us kids to take care of and worry about and I only had myself. So I'd help out around the house more and not argue with her as much. Getting the kids to school and just letting her get out of the house and go places without the bus. That summer I joined football and summer school again so I could catch up with classes and football. I wanted that summer to be filled because the one before that was boring. So once again I was on the busses again but this time around I didn't care because I had my music and everything. Junior year started the same as sophomore year I had a girlfriend and new friends. That year was good for me so many laughs and a lot of fun. That year hip-hop really came into my life. That year I met some good friends in Jacob K. and Ali P. Were still good friends. I also met a great family in the Kuchinskys.
So the following year is my senior year and I am ready to finish high school. The summer before all I did was football no relationships or anything just football and I was stress free the whole time. School started and this year was the best I met so many more people this year I was more social than ever and I passed all my classes. I met a girl that year that changed a lot for me and I appreciate her. She gave me some confidence.
Second semester was good for me I had a job at Popeyes and I was making my own money. I was able to leave school early and everything. I was ready to go. June comes around and I'm ready to graduate from El Camino. I was the first kid to graduate from the new Solutions Family Center. I thank my mom and Solutions for being there to get me to that point in my life. I thank my mom first for not giving up on everything and making that decision to put are family in the Solutions programs. I thank her for making it happen when it needed to happen for her kids.
Then I thank Solutions for taking me and my family in. They gave us the chance that was needed to take our family higher and the chances they give to other families to take there's higher. For myself I thank them because I could have ended up as a kid who gave up thinking that it was the end but they and my mom brought me to be the person I am now. I owe so much to them. And I am thankful to all those people that help Solutions. We see and hear about all the people and the churches and so many different people who come to Solutions to help us. All those people were part of something that changed my life and made me a pretty good person. I think about coming home that one day to a locked door and that feeling in the pit of my stomach and that look on my mom's face and it seems like a thousand's years ago.
I know people out there are going to read this and it might be hard for them to know what it's like being homeless as a kid. All I can say is this thing Solutions is always talking about, rebuilding futures and all that stuff is personal for me. And if you had something to do with it well then you helped rebuild my life and for that I'd like to shake your hand or give you a hug. I'm not a real hugging kind of guy but I've got one for anyone who helps Solutions because you me and family and my mom beat homelessness.
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Stories of Hope continue
From the mouths of our children
James, age 8
Before I came to Solutions for Change I started living with my godparents and I wanted my mom and my brother and I wanted all of us to live together. My family came to Solutions for Change seven months ago (September 2008). We moved into the shelter because we did not have a place to live. We were homeless because my mom used drugs. I was nervous when I first came to Solutions for Change. I was in a new space and did not know anyone. When we moved from the shelter to the apartments (Solutions Family Center) I was excited to live at the apartments and have my own room. I have my own room now and I feel like it is home. Solutions for Change helps my mom stay clean and helped her get a job and we stay together. I would tell a new person to Solutions for Change to follow the rules and I would say hello and shake their hands
Jacob, age 15
My family and I came to Solutions for Change on April 15th 2006. My life before Solutions for Change was an unstable and a bad life. We moved around from place to place, my parents always fighting drinking and doing drugs, not having any time for me and my brothers. We came to Solutions for Change to start a new life and because we lost our house and had nowhere to live so we were homeless. When I first came to Solutions for Change I was happy because I was going to live with my parents again and start a better life. When we moved to the apartments (Solutions Family Center) I was happy because we were not at the shelter anymore. I like the friends that I have at Solutions for Change. They have shared the same experiences as me. Solutions for Change helped my parents by showing them how to stay clean and sober and have a stable life. Now they work full time but still have lots of time for us kids. Solutions helped us get into our own home. Everything is changed now. I would tell someone coming in to Solutions for Change that they are lucky to be there, it is a great place and it will change your life.
Read more stories of hope…
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