ROOTS: Rising Out of the Shadows
ROOTS is a young adults shelter right by UW that I have volunteered at a few times and it’s really a great place. Below is a newsletter I received from them. Stories like the one they shared in this newsletter are part of the reason why I am constantly rethinking and developing what community means to me. It’s part of the reason why I continue to do some of the things I do and in the very simplest way, it just inspires me. Making a difference can be real easy but I can’t do it alone. I really just don’t have the funds to donate every month or invest much more of my time in to volunteering regularly. But I hope my friends and family can help me raise some money to donate to them and help just ordinary people like you and me.
I know it’s long, but in the very least, I hope you take the time to read below. And if you want to donate, you can donate online at www.rootsinfo.org or message me or email me: malyn.nuth@gmail.com :)
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Dearest Friend,
The word “sheltor” does not get used much by the young people who stay here. We’re mostly knows as ROOTS (or occasionally the “ROOTS-Carlton”). In their view, this is simply their temporary home and they are on the way to better things.
Among those young people is a couple I’ll call Zoey & James. Ages 19 and 21, they have been together 2 years and are days away from becoming parents. They were both athletes in high school; James was given a full-ride scholarship in football, and Zoey played soccer. Zoey’s mom “ran around on the streets” and her dad was in jail, so she was raised by her grandfather. James lost his football scholarship when he suffered a serious knee injury during his freshman year of college. They found each other on the streets of Portland. After two years of “doing things that got us in trouble” they matured more quickly than the college and hometown friends they had left behind.
Time in jail and the new person growing inside of Zoey shifted their interest away from the hard life. She is due to give birth on Christmas to a child they are both eager to keep. However, the sad truth is that hospitals will not release a newborn into homelessness. If Zoey and James cannot find housing before she goes into labor, they will likely lose this child. Even with ROOTS and other service agencies calling housing providers, there are no openings right now. It is unprecedented for a soon-to-parent young woman to be turned down for housing; typically, the housing system would deliver before she does. When asked what he’s learned from his time on the streets, James answered, “It makes me more hungry, more willing to go after what I need in this life. I am no longer content just to sit back and wait.”
We are also not good at waiting. As a non-profit that offered safe haven to over 500 young people this year, our very mission is the opposite of waiting. our job is to shelter, clothe and feed them right now, and to tell James & Zoey’s story to the people in Olympia until housing funds meet the needs of our most vulnerable. Our job is to change the system that is leaving people out in the cold, to make sure young people who are working for better lives have the resources they need within their grasp.
Together, we can end the wait. Your $58 check is the equivalent of a safe place for James and Zoey to spend one more night. It is also about the cost of two hours of one-on-one resource help from a case support worker - the sort of help that might enable James and Zoey to keep their child. Your donation demonstrates that people care and will join them in no longer sitting back and waiting for the change we need.
I look forward to thanking you in person, and appreciate the beautifully woven circle of support that is called ROOTS.
Joyfully Yours,
Kristine Cunningham
Executive Director
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