A 32-year-old waitress in Hollywood, Florida is on the move once again. This time she is organizing a massive jobs initiative that calls for big businesses to offer employment opportunities to the communities that have supported their success. Denny’s Restaurants has taken the lead by partnering with The Rebuild Your Life Project, Patterson’s empowerment outreach for women.

“I hope that other American big businesses decide to partner with The Rebuild Your Life Project,” Patterson said. “This is a great way for big businesses to attract the type of employees that really want to contribute their skills and it helps to debunk the myth that large corporations do not care about the very people who have helped them to achieve their level of success.”

In April 2011, Patterson, the creator of The Rebuild Your Life Project, an empowerment outreach aimed to teach women to overcome their fear of failure, gave away everything that she owned and moved out of her apartment, becoming homeless on purpose in the city of Hollywood, Florida. Patterson aimed to show women what their biggest fear looked like and teach them how to survive it by watching her do it.

During the 4 months that Patterson was homeless from April 2011 through August 2011, she made a call to action to 30 businesses to participate in a job fair for homeless women and women in distress to help women rebuild their lives.

Patterson organized and executed The Rebuild Your Life Job Fair, raised money through her tips and wages to offer a $650 rental assistance grant to a woman in need, while teaching mental strategies for successfully navigating the obstacles women face when trying to rebuild their lives. She managed to document the entire journey into and out of homelessness in video on her YouTube channel.

After securing a job as a waitress at Denny’s Restaurant, Patterson partnered with the international corporation to hold a mass hiring event in South Florida. On December 20, 2011 more than 100 unemployed residents from Miami-Dade and Broward counties participated in open interviews for the 14 participating corporate owned Denny’s restaurants that partnered with Patterson in support of The Rebuild Your Life Project.

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The Mentor Network, a national network of local human services providers, has launched a new website – www.makeadifferenceathome.com – and an online advertising campaign designed to increase awareness about the need for more Host Home providers.

Host Homes consist of individuals and families who provide caring homes in the community for children in need and adults with developmental disabilities.  In partnership with The Mentor Network, Host Home providers open their hearts and their homes and have the opportunity to earn extra money to help make ends meet.

“The Mentor Network is called a ‘network’ for a reason — it’s not just one person or group.  It’s a national network of people, in communities across the country, who are joined by the common belief that positive, nurturing relationships are the basis for growth and change and that these relationships are best fostered through active participation in the daily rhythms of neighborhood and family life,” said Dwight Robson, Chief Public Strategy & Marketing Officer at The Mentor Network.

Across the nation, there are more than 100,000 individuals with developmental disabilities who are waiting for access to community-based services.  In addition, there are more than 400,000 children in the foster care system.

“There are already thousands of individuals who have decided to make a difference at home, but the need for community-based care continues to grow,” Robson said.  “Through this campaign we hope to show people how rewarding this work can be and encourage them to consider how much of a difference they could make in the life of an adult or child in need.”

The new website is designed to help interested individuals learn more about being a foster parent or host home provider and includes videos, case studies and other interactive features.

“We refer to our host home providers and foster parents as ‘Mentors’ because they do so much more than just provide a home to an individual in need — they help them grow and learn, forever changing their lives,” Robson continued.  “Mentors make a huge difference to the life of an individual and they also earn extra money at home that can help make ends meet.”

Mentors are caring individuals from all walks of life who provide support for children with emotional, medical and behavioral challenges and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Mentors help children and adults thrive as part of the community and positively impact their home life.

“When you take in and care for a foster child or an adult with developmental disabilities, you’re giving them something money can’t buy — a helping hand, a home, a family, and someone who wants to share a life with them.  As a Mentor, you show them through your actions that we all matter and we all deserve to live life to the fullest,” said Robson.

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In America, a great debate rages about what exactly poverty is. The Census Bureau states that there were 46.2 million people living in poverty in 2010. According to information from The Heritage Foundation, approximately 1 out of 70 Americans was homeless at any given time, and 1 out of 5 adults experienced hunger, and temporary food shortages.

Speaking to several people, we’ve asked what they would perceive as poverty for them and their families. Kristina Dewey, who has a family of three and a current income of approximately $17,000 a year said, “When the family is out of food and no means to get food, that’s poor.” Her income was reduced from $35,000.00 a year.

Shannon Hause, of Rockford Michigan, also shared her views. She is a full time student, as is her husband. She has three children; one who is in the Navy and two teens still at home. Their annual income is $16,120.00 a year.

To Hause, poverty is about having to align her classes with her spouse’s as best as possible; she still has to wait several hours periodically through the week for him to finish in order to reduce costs. The cost of transportation, including parking fees, is too large for them to commute more than once a day.

Although this may be time used for homework, it is subsequently plenty of time lost on house work. Poverty for their family means lack of insurance for home and vehicle. It also means facing potentially dangerous situations involving their motor vehicle because of the inability to afford repairs. 

Another example of poverty is exemplified by a woman named Lisa and her family. They recently moved in with her father-in-law in order to save money. Along with her and her husband, they have five children. That is five adults and three teens for a total of eight people, living in a two bedroom home.

Lastly, I can personally relate to poverty. It was not until seven months ago that my husband and I, along with my children who we have every other weekend and week in the summer, lived under harsh circumstances. Our income for over a year and a half amounted to no more than around $3,000.00 and only through the kindness of another did we manage through that time.

He provided us with a trailer in the back of a cornfield. The trailer was in a rough state and also had no electricity, and was without a working shower. We obtained our water from the well by use of a generator, and stored it in a 50 gallon barrel that my husband rigged to service the toilet, and the kitchen faucet.

We had no hot water, no computer, no games, and our radio was a car stereo hooked up to a 12 volt car battery. In the warmer weather, we bathed by the outdoor water barrel, where we strung blankets for privacy. In the winter we took sponge baths near the wood stove that heated our home.

We had no refrigerator, nor did we have a stove for the most part. I had to learn how to cook on two different wood stoves, the second being a barrel stove. I did have a small two burner camp stove that I used when we could afford the propane bottles for it. We bought a great deal of tinned meat, ate what game was available that the boys would bring in.

Milk and cold foods were an extreme luxury to us. About once a month we would splurge and put gas in the generator to watch a movie on vhs. My own circumstances have changed a great deal, and frankly what most consider dire poverty, I consider great deal more than we had. We still struggle financially, there is much we go without and there are times when hunger is in our home.

As these examples show, there are various ways of being impoverished in America. But the chance of this changing anytime soon is unlikely. In fact, things are likely to get even worse as more government level cuts are being imposed. The greatest hope for America today is the ‘little people’; small communities, neighbors, family and friends.

Americans should take a look around and see what they can do to change the situation in their towns. As things deteriorate financially, Americans need to take a look back at how people survived the Great Depression. Tend to your neighbor, if he is hungry feed him, put in gardens that many can tend, barter for goods. Hunger and housing problems are the two greatest enemies of a family on the line of poverty.

If you can help feed people then do so. If you have a place for someone to stay, offer it.

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