Hello my favorite TIS Supporters!
It’s the happ…happiest time of year –Lip Sync Battle season!
Please go to our website www.talbotinterfaithshelter.org and view all the hilarious videos that have been created by some fun-loving and talented people…your neighbors. From a video that could be an advertisement for WCEI and WINX – to the kids at the Critchlow Adkins Children’s Centers boogying down to singer Meghan Trainor; a wide breadth of songs, styles and savvy will be heard by all.
Lip Sync Battle is the largest fundraiser for TIS! Last year, thanks to the community wrapping their arms around this event, and voting for their favorite teams with their dollars, we raised over $112,000! This year’s goal is $125,000 (10% of our budget this year), and I am really hoping we surpass that. Since TIS receives very little support from the State and Federal governments, we rely on our faithful supporters for our operating funds.
We expand to meet the growing needs a little each year and our budget grows concurrently. Now that we have 133 Vine Street as offices, classrooms and storage facility, we can house 4 more individuals at Evelyn’s Place. We will have space at 133 Vine Street for classes like Getting’ Ahead in a Just Gettin’ by World, Money FUNdamentals, Anger Management, Yoga and Meditation—all life skills that our guests who have experienced damaging trauma require to turn their lives around.
What better way could there be to support TIS’s S4 Program than watching fun videos, attending the actual live event on April 26, voting for your favorite team(s), and dancing and laughing to the music? Well, maybe actually participating in the live event itself!
There’s still a little time to put together a video or a live act. Contact Laura Richeson at lauraricheson@talbotinterfaithshelter.org or call 443-786-6962 if you’re interested in being involved in Lip Sync Battle.
In the current climate at both the State and Federal levels, where cuts to programs are rampant, I feel especially reinforced in our decision to not rely heavily on funding from these programs. TIS’s S4 Program is unique and successful, yet does not conform to the higher governments’ current expectations for homeless shelters. At some point we hope to expand toward offering a lower-barrier emergency shelter—we’ve discussed this at length with our Board of Directors—but right now we only have the capacity to run the S4 Program to the best of our ability. To access funding from the State and Federal governments, we would not be able to run background checks, we would have to accept individuals who are currently using drugs and/or have a serious mental health diagnosis, and possibly even sexual offenders.
While we know that this is a population that deserves to be served, we are focused on a type of rehabilitation. We identify and assist people who are facing episodic homelessness, and who want to climb out of what I call the Pit of Poverty. This is a vortex that drags people further and further down to a place where it is almost impossible to rectify by themselves. What we offer is a safety net, compassionate counseling, life skills education and an opportunity for transitional housing with the intended goal of preparing our guests for the current housing market. This gets increasingly difficult as the market rates go higher, especially since the COVID 19 pandemic changed the housing market so drastically.
Your support is so important to the success of our Program, and thus the success of our guests. Without our supporters, TIS would not be what it is today—a light in the darkness for some, a beacon of hope, and a shining example to other organizations that want to actually effect change in the lives of our neighbors who are grappling with the traumas of living in poverty.
Thank you for caring about your community enough to want to help some of the most vulnerable people in our area to have more comfortable lives and to be able to enjoy their children, to have some free time and to be able to actually contribute to society. I cannot thank you enough!
So now, please sit back with your favorite beverage, view some videos on our website, giggle and laugh out loud, and vote for the teams you like the best. As Team TIS’s video suggests, “Climb aboard the Love Train” and help us spread the joy.
-Julie Lowe