Recently, the Executive Director of the Women’s Center of Wake County, Dr. Jean Williams helped a couple who were locked out of their home and were living in their car. The Venables were like thousands of other American families who have fallen on hard times and lost the roof over their heads. Dr. Williams felt that at the very least she could round up a few volunteers and save the couples’ possessions. “As human beings, it is traumatic to lose your home, but when you lose your familiar belongings, your photographs, your memories, you lose a lot more than shelter. You lose hope,” she said. “So I called up the landlord and arranged so we could enter their home and pack all their things. We arranged space at a storage facility and a group of volunteers helped us move all the Venables worldly possessions there.”
Dr. Williams shared with me her idea of creating a local capability so other families could also be helped in a similar way. She would like to hire a part-time coordinator to secure the partnerships, volunteers, and logistical needs of families on the verge of eviction. She doesn’t want another family to go through the grief and desperation that the Venables went through. The cost for such a resource? $10,000 a year.
WRAL covered the Venables story on the 6 o’clock news and two follow up stories also got prime-time coverage. “Not every family is as lucky. I’m determined to do something about it,” Dr. Williams reminded me.
What I love about this story is that The Women’s Center and all their local partners worked together as a team. They made lemonade out of lemons.
$10,000 a year doesn’t sound like a lot. If you’d like to show your support for Jean’s idea and help her finance this part-time coordinator position, you can go over to the Women’s Center website and make a donation. Or if you want to make a really big donation to get this project started, give the Women’s Center a call at 919-829-3711. As I watched Dr. Williams animatedly discuss this new project, I worried a little bit. The Women’s Center has just moved into a new facility and must raise funds to cover its own rent and utilities.
My sense is that Dr. Williams puts things out into the universe, and knows they will materialize if they are supposed to. Operational and financial challenges come with running an nonprofit in a recession. But she must keep marching onward and upward, and do the work. THAT is her mandate.
- Maybe someone reading this will be willing to donate a few storage units?
- Or someone who has personally faced eviction in the past now wants to fund this because he understands what it’s like to lose everything?
- Dr. Williams could always use volunteers willing to pack and move.
Watch the story covered by WRAL News featuring the homeless couple that sparked this idea:
P.S. I know this idea represents a temporary fix — but with the funding cuts that severely limit the capacity for agencies to do more, it’s better than doing nothing. In the face of dwindling resources in Wake County, Dr. Williams’ enthusiasm is a bit contagious and even if you try hard to resist, you find yourself thinking of superheroes, and indulging in a bit of magical thinking. All it takes is some brawn, a few boxes, packing tape, permanent markers, a coordinator, and donated storage units. How cool is that. I know that if I was on the verge of being homeless, I’d want someone like Dr. Williams in my community, giving a damn about me. And that’s something anyone, however cynical or disbelieving in magical thinking and superheroes can understand. A woman who gives a damn.
The Homeless in Wake County, North Carolina: The Listening Project 