Hood-Check: A First-Timer's Perspective

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I've shared before how important our weekly Wednesday hood-check is to the success of our employment and job-training program at Bud's Warehouse.

Madison Chandler, who along with Mark Smesrud is starting a Denver coffee shop to employ homeless young-adults under the Belay umbrella, writes about her first hood-check experience in a recent post on the Purple Door Coffee blog:

Every morning before Bud’s Warehouse opens, the employees all meet for one hour with Andy, the manager of Bud’s. Depending on the day, the hour is devoted to education, personal check-ins or bible study. At the personal check-in meeting, everyone has an opportunity to talk about what is going on in his or her personal life. Some people talk about their children; some people talk about housing; some people talk about their relationships; some people talk about their addictions. It really is a beautiful time that is totally devoted to understanding the lives of the people that surround you everyday.
When it was my opportunity to share, I spoke mostly about how my life has been a bit challenging recently because I am totally relying on donations for living. I talked about how I am in a place where I am depending on God to capture people’s hearts with Purple Door Coffee’s mission, then perhaps people will donate, then I will have money to pay rent and buy groceries and continue to work toward opening Purple Door Coffee in the Fall. I told of my tendency to worry about how many donations will come and I told of my efforts to have full faith that God will provide if it is in His will.
After my brief speech, one of the guys in the meeting looked at me and asked, “Why are you doing this? ”
Read the whole post here.

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