Happy New Year!!!

 Well, it is a new year now and we have had a few setbacks. One, our van for Hope Station USA cannot be fixed so we had to let it go. Two, I just had both of my big toes amputated in September, so nothing could be done until I recovered. Now I am having foot surgery on Thursday to correct some issues with my foot that are causing the sores which lead to amputations. Other than that things are progressing slowly and I won't be able to do much of anything outside until my foot is healed and I will be able to walk on it.

We have been sitting down and coming up with ideas to bring in some funding other than donating some of my money to Hope Station USA. We missed our date for Orlando street fundraising due to my toes and cannot apply for another permit until April for Orlando. I am looking into other places to get a permit and hopefully, some grants will come in.

I have been spending time getting things set up here at home for my surgery and being back in a wheelchair. We will make a strong effort to move Hope Station USA along this year. Today is our thirteenth year anniversary since incorporating and beginning operations. We are so proud of that. It has been a battle all the way with losing our Treasurer to cancer and then with my health issues. I am a survivor just like every homeless person living out in the streets.

Well, we have lots of things to get into motion and I will leave you with this post until the next. Have a great and blessed day and if you see a homeless person please give them a smile and let them know they are in your thoughts and prayers. See ya.

We Have A New Van for Hope Station USA, Hooray!!

We just acquired a van for Hope Station USA to be able to deliver more essentials to the homeless and needy, plus it will be used for our program that will transport them back and forth to work as they work their program with us. We hope to touch many and expected to reach many more with our compassion and experience.
The van needs some work which will take a couple of months to get done to make it ready, but we anticipate the outcome of making our first delivery to the homeless. It will come in handy picking up donations as well. We believe it will be an essential part of our new project that I need to get to work writing grants to help with the funding.
We do believe that after the first project is set up and in place that more funding will come in to build many more sites for more programs. Our pilot community will be a smash hit with the homeless and will help many to regain their self-sufficiency. We are registered in Florida and Georgia and hopefully will be adding Tennessee soon this year because we think that it will be the best place to set up our first community since we can achieve that land cheaply and affordably.
We have no one on salary and everyone is a volunteer. We wish to acquire the skills of the homeless to help us build the community and set things up. Then, the word of mouth will spread through the homeless community and many will come to us for help and want to join our program. The majority of everyone out there that is homeless wants to be out there. We have spoken with several people who just need and want someone to help them get up on their feet so that they can continue going making more and more progress. Let's pull together and give them a hand up. Keep the homeless in your prayers and thoughts. Take care and God bless.

I Have Some Good News to Share

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting our site. We have been working on getting our new program up and funded but have found financial difficulty. We are keeping our thoughts positive and hopeful for a new year and plenty of individuals helped by our services.
Our good news is that we have secured a passenger van for transportation and the ability to service more areas. It needs a little work and cleaned up but we are happy to have it. We will be able to move more supplies to more areas and that will help us get our name out there.
I am getting ready to begin making donations drive table calls to local Walmarts and see how much help we can get to help those still living out in the cold. We need everyone's support and the homeless need our help.
With this new vehicle, our services are endless as far as locations to help serve them. Please share this post with your friends and family and help us by making a contribution yourself. God Bless.

4/12/2019 Status Update

Hello everyone! It is a beautiful day here in Dalton, Georgia and the sun is shining. I wanted to give everyone an update on our progress. I have been trying to raise money through different sources but no one seems to care to support a cause that has been an issue for many years. I will not give up though. It is my passion to help those who are in need of assistance.

We have been busy around here with personal matters and I am ready to try something else now. I am going to start making arrangements for table donations at local merchants to get some funding to come in and help. I also need to finish setting up my list of foundations to send requests for support. I am hopeful that we will meet our goal to build our first community by the end of the year.

The homeless individuals that we have spoken to about the program are excited to get someone to help them regain their self-sufficiency. It only takes a dollar from every American and we could end the homeless situation in the United States. People are so worried about their own lives and money that they don't seem to care that a homeless individual could be a family member or their own next door neighbor, they want to help themselves only.

My plan is to start making calls next week to set up tables to collect donations and to sell candles in order to get some of the funding to help towards our goal. I have been using some of our own personal money to pay for all the registrations and paperwork to keep Hope Station alive and never wanting it returned. That is how much I care to keep her going to assist them out there in the wilderness struggling to survive.

We will make our goal this year for one community to show everyone how well our program would work to help end homelessness. I just wanted to give everyone an update on the status and will post again soon hopefully with some good news. Take care and if you want to show your support just click on one of the links below. Be blessed.

https://www.gofundme.com/5u9yxn-pathway-to-selfsufficiency

Paypal Fundraising

paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1446573

3/29/2019 Status Update

Hello everyone. It is time for another update on our progress. I have set up a GoFundMe campaign which isn't doing very well right now. I have to set up another campaign on a different site and I have been placing the donation links everywhere with still no response.

It saddens me when we have a sure plan of helping the homeless to regain their self-sufficiency and no one cares to help support us. I have not seen anyone with this type of plan and we have spoken to some of the homeless and they can't wait for us to get it set up because it will definitely help them. There is a good response from the homeless population, it is just getting the community to help us out to get this project going.

I will be updating the campaign page with a post and then set up the other campaign page on a different site to see if these people can help support our efforts. I also hope to get some grant funding research done today and tomorrow to seek out funding for our project.

Once we secure funding for our project, the first location will be a trial run to make sure it will work and to record the success rate. We are positive that it will work, but the community needs to see the success rate to give their support. Once the success rate is recorded then, we will try for more locations across the United States to help end hunger and poverty everywhere and hopefully, other charities will jump on board to help in other locations.

I am working on setting up donation tables at local merchants and that will be worked on this next week to get some set up in the next couple of weeks. I am hopeful that things will come together this year for Hope Station.

3/3/2019 Status Update

Good morning everyone. First I want to send my thoughts and prayers out to those sleeping outside. I just wanted to give everyone an update. If you haven't noticed yet there is another page added to the site? It will be my journal and route taken during my walk. you can look there during my walk and see my progress as far as the route that I will be taking in case your in the area and want to say hello or get a picture with me. You will also see how many miles I have walked, my location, and any money raised during the walk. My husband will be at 5-mile checkpoints for me to take a break and posted up in case you have any donations you want to stop and drop off.

I look forward to this walk and meeting new people out there. I will be stopping to interview the homeless for a book that I will be writing in November. I am very excited about the walk and raising the money to assist them in getting off the streets and becoming working citizens again.

I got a GoFundMe account already in place and I have been working on the grant proposal to submit to certain foundations for funding the project. Things seem to be moving in the right direction this year and I am certain this will be our year for great things.

I just wanted to give you a quick update and will update you again in a few days. Take care and may God keep those living in the streets under his protection.

3/1/2019 Status Update

Hello everyone and how are you? I am doing fantastic and my thoughts and prayers go out to those living on the streets. Last night I finished researching all the information that I needed for the new program of Hope Station USA call Pathway to Self-Sufficiency. it will be a program to help them transition from living on the streets to becoming a working tax paying member of society.

We put a lot of thought into this program and do believe it to be a huge benefit to the community and society as well as to the homeless individuals who join the program. It gives them that hand up that they need to get back on their feet again.

I will place part of the grant proposal and the estimated costs here in this post so that everyone could see what the program entails and what the costs would be to get her up and running. We would use homeless individuals and volunteers to help build the little community and it would provide a few jobs per location that are constructed.

We are excited about it and the benefits outweigh anything else that comes close to helping them. I can't have my heartstrings pulled every time I see someone out there panhandling to survive when most are able to work and that is another benefit of the program and that is to get them working again.

So here is the information about the program and maybe everyone could chip in and help us out.

Pathway to Self-Sufficiency is a program created by Hope Station USA, Inc. that would provide a stable and safe place for a homeless individual to live and with the programs help, they will learn the steps to becoming a working and tax-paying member of society again.

The program consists of steps that will need to be taken in order to graduate the program and become self-sufficient. Each individual will be assessed, and the program will be tailored to the individual's needs and goals. Individuals that graduate from the program will also be considered milestones and accomplishments for Hope Station USA, Inc.

The program for each individual will be six months long, and upon their time of graduation, they will be assisted in moving into their new apartment or home. We will provide transportation to and from their place of employment and back to their assigned housing unit at Pathways to Self-Sufficiency. Each individual will be required to sign a contract stating that they will abide by the rules of the program and that they will assist in keeping everyone within the walls of the program safe and from harm.

There will be ten steps to the program with the first one being the assessment and then being assigned a housing unit. There will be twenty housing units within each Pathway to Self-Sufficiency location created. The goal of this program is to assist as many homeless individuals as we can and get them back into society.

The next step will be to sit down with them and set some goals both short term and long term. We want them to understand that they do have choices on how they live and how they want to be perceived by society. We will also assist them in building a resume if they have work experience prior to becoming homeless.

Through our computer lab, they will have access to job seeking resources and the occasional free time with the internet but under supervision and website blocking for inappropriate material. Also, there will be our version of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous which will be led by myself or a guest speaker with ten or more years under their belt. I have been clean and sober for ten years now and I cherish every minute of it.

There will be community nights where everyone will get together and hang out and get to know each other and barbeque weekends. Hope Station USA will provide them with meals and hygiene products as well as any clothing that they might need for job seeking. The purpose of these meetings will be to let everyone know that they are not alone and to give them hope.

Another step will be to teach them life lessons as we call them. Each individual will be taught the basics of living a normal life, such as cooking, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, and sewing. We want to equip them to be able to take care of themselves once out on their own.

Once they have acquired employment, then we will take them to open a bank account and teach them to budget and save money. They will have to be taught how to pay bills and live a normal life. After thirty days of working, we will require them to pay one- hundred and fifty dollars a month as a rental payment for their housing unit. This will be used as an income to keep the program going.

The next step will be to assist them in securing a source of transportation. Whether they want a vehicle or a bicycle, it will be to help them get around. Soon after they have acquired their own source of transportation, it will be time to begin saving for their very own apartment.

At their six-month period, we will assist them in moving to their own apartment and we will have a graduation party for them before they are checked out of their housing unit.

Each housing unit will be equipped with a twin bed, a micro-fridge, a small microwave, a refurbished television, a dresser, and a desk with chair and a small lamp. There will be curfews in place for their own safety and someone will be on guard overnight to maintain the safety of the community.

With this program, it will create four to five jobs per location that will be laborers, overnight people, and a housekeeper to keep the bathroom and showers clean on top of doing the laundry that is needed. This person will also check people in and out during the day in the administration building.

Costs Associated with Program-                $135,000

Property Purchase-         $26,000- 30,000              

Utilities-               $6,000- 10,000 Estimated per year

Salaries -              $80,000/ year    4 Employees      $20,000/year/each

Passenger Van- $15,000

Build Cost for Community-          $107,666.56

Fence-  $9,182.95

Administrative Building w/ Computer Lab-            $6,667.54

Dining Hall Plus Kitchen-               $5,282.87

Laundry Room- $2,344.89

Shower/ Bathroom Building-       $4,636.16

Amenities/ Appliances- $20,292.35

Tiny House-        $2,212.99 each @ 20 = $44,259.80

Miscellaneous hardware/ Tools-                $10,000

Septic-  $5,000

Total Cost of Program-  $242,666.56