Who is Homeless?

I am an abused wife who left unspeakable terror at home. I am homeless.

I am a steel mill worker. The mill shut down, and I couldn't find work for a long while after that. I am homeless.

I am a runaway girl. I left home because of family problems. Now I'm trying to cope on the streets. I am homeless.

Homelessness in America has no specific age group, race, religion, gender, or educational level. There are homeless people with high school diplomas and post doctorate degrees. There are young children and old men. Some have been forced out of home due to loss of work, fire, abuse, social or legal circumstance, gambling, natural disasters, and sometimes substance abuse.

It can strike anyone. But all homeless people have one thing in common. They have lost hope. They find themselves in a bad situation, and without hope, they give up, and just wind up staying homeless.

Steps Up is dedicated to teaching the Social and Job skills necessary to re-instill the hope needed to further oneself.

Steps Up

STEPS UP stands for: Skills Training, Educating People, Stimulating Upward Progression.

There are several programs in existence today which aid in removing homeless and transient people off the streets by feeding and sheltering them.

This however is a temporary answer to a permanent social problem. It is like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. Flop houses and soup kitchens may be compassionate, but they only propigate the existing problem. They make it relatively easy to remain homeless for long periods of time, while not promoting the social change and reform necessary to actually help these people.

Our key purpose is to provide training in social and job skills which is necessary to enable them to overcome their problems and become useful and profitable members of society once again.

As the old saying goes, “Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.” We believe that a combination of social and job skills training is the ONLY true answer to this problem.

We further believe that by helping these people to be reintegrated with society, we help not only them, but in a greater view, society as a whole. By helping these people back into the job market, we help to decrease joblessness, along with it’s social financial burden. Many of these homeless also have other social and financial responsibilities. As these people move into apartments, pay their bills, purchase food and other commodities, and pay off old debts, more money is moved throughout the local economy, as well as taxes paid to the government. This, in the larger scheme, helps the economy to grow.

Also, by helping these people out of poverty, we help clean up littered and impoverished areas, and our efforts carry on to a much greater social level. Like ripples in a pool, the effects continue on indefinitely.

We have assembled a team of counsellors, instructors, and motivational speakers, as well as a tried and tested curriculum which is specifically designed to give self confidence, hope, and job and social skills necessary in order to cope in a normal society.

However, all this comes at a great cost. A financial cost most people don't even fathom. Stop and think. 100 people, 1 year, 3 meals a day, and cheap $2.50 meals. Put that together, and it takes over a quarter of a million dollars a year just to feed 100 program members while we are training them. Some of this money comes from government funding, but the majority is from commercial and private sector funding.

We need your help.

Donations help offset the cost immensely - and not just money! Volunteers, land, vehicles, equipment and supplies.

If you are interested in helping, in any capacity, please contact us.

email@stepsup.org