The Nonprofit Podcast The Important Podcast - Ep 2 A Community for The Homeless - Amber Fogarty
On the surface, it seems that housing would solve homelessness. However, it’s not that simple. A village on the outskirts of Austin, Texas was founded with the belief that community will solve homelessness. This ‘Community First Village’ currently houses 200 paying tenants who are no longer chronically homeless; they will house 1,000 formerly homeless tenants in the next 10 years, which would reduce the Austin homeless population by half.
Their community approach is working, but how is this possible... In this episode, we’ll learn from Amber Fogerty, the Chief Goodness Officer at Mobile Loaves and Fishes, about the philosophy behind this unique village that serves the homeless.
In This Episode, You Will Learn
- How Amber defines goodness
- What to do when you encounter homeless people on the street.
- A common cause for homelessness: the catastrophic loss of family
- Housing alone will never solve homelessness, community will.
- What holds people back from sharing their talent.
- How to encourage people to serve others
- The fundraising philosophy of: heart over pocket
- Amber believes that human beings have two inherent needs / desires:
- Desire to be fully known
- Desire to be fully loved
- The importance of listening to your community
- The cons of scattered site housing
- How MLF dealt with opposition from the Not In My Backyard Movements (NIMBY)
- The role of fear in the bias against community housing
- The value that CommunityFirst Village provides to the neighborhood next door.
- “Empower communities into a lifestyle of service” for the homeless
- The role that grace and mercy plays in conflict resolution at Mobile Loaves and Fishes
- The MLF.org ten year plan to mitigate homelessness in Austin
Links and Resources
- Learn more at mlf.org
- Attend the Symposium for Goodness’ Sake
- Check out the book about the presence that we’re all born with: The Second Circle
- Donorbox - fundraise online for your nonprofit or cause
About the Author / Show Host
Jared Polivka’s mission is to serve others while living a light-hearted, present, empathetic and responsible life. Jared serves nonprofits at Donorbox.org, teaches at organizations through The Joy of Improv and advises various startup founders and organizations. Stay in touch with Jared on Instagram, Twitter and Medium.