Because of your generous donations over the last few years, your local United Way was able to swiftly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic without hesitation. With support of your United Way, agencies such as Bridges Community Services have been able to continue to provide safe housing for those who are homeless.
Please read the inspiring story below to learn how your United Way has been able to help programs, like Bridges Community Services, throughout the pandemic.
Bridges Community Services Story
It's a small patch of grass behind an old home that hasn't been lived in for years. This patch is prime space-- shaded with a good, dusty breeze coming from across the alley, with plenty of room to stretch out in a picnic type of way.
LaTasha was just out of the shower and waiting for her laundry to finish. We talked about some shells she had found scattered around the railroad tracks. Pale shells blushing with pink when turned over and examined. This "down time" is time shared-- time to have conversations that can often start on the surface and go deep quickly. Conversations that reveal the living conditions of our peers, the heat of the abandoned houses they are sleeping in, and conversations that divulge the daydreams of spending a night in a hotel simply because of the bed, bathroom, shower, and air conditioning.
These are the interactions that remind us how much we all have in common; how important it is to remember that we are all simply human.
These are the intersections that we, Bridges Community Services, have found ourselves at before, and more so during the pandemic.
Because of the pandemic, area shelters have been forced to decrease the number of people they can serve and many homeless people and families who would typically stay in shelters have left them out of fear. Housing programs are full. Social distancing rules have resulted in increased numbers of people who are joining the ranks of the unsheltered living on the streets and in Muncie's abandoned homes. We've always made it a point to meet people where they are and establish a place where unsheltered people can receive basic hygiene and services. Bridges Community Services is proud to be entrusted to hold this space in the community and to continue to provide this space during the pandemic thanks to help from funders like the United Way. More than anything, we are inspired. Our vision is that Bridges Community Services will continue to be a healing space that is safe, clean, and surrounded by good energy throughout the pandemic. Our goal is to continue to work alongside the lives of each person our space touches by moving toward a solution to each person’s homelessness. We seek to create connection between people. We want our programs to represent the essence of what makes Muncie one of the most caring and involved cities in the state. The pandemic has showcased the horrors of poverty, addiction and hopelessness. But it has also showed us that we can continue to be a space where we meet our unsheltered population where they are, and provide for basic, humane needs. It can be a place where we invest in those that are living rough in our city.
To learn more about Bridges Community Services Inc., visit http://www.bridgescs.org/. To further support Bridges and other organizations like it, donate to the 2020 United Way Ball State Employee Campaign by visiting https://www.bsu.edu/web/unitedway/how-to-give or texting BSU20United to 91999. More Campaign details can be found at https://www.bsu.edu/web/unitedway.