Every Saturday morning (at around 9 –10 AM) I do a long run through Uptown Charlotte. If you’ve never been to the heart up Uptown, it’s not that large, especially in comparison to other cities. While I enjoy my runs, it’s often heartbreaking, because homeless people are everywhere on the streets of Charlotte – sleeping on benches, digging through trash cans, walking up and down the streets asking for money. I feel completely helpless, as I generally don’t have money or food to give while running.
I recently came across a project here in Charlotte called About Face Charlotte. Those at About Face are taking a different approach to tackling homelessness – through storytelling.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey there are 147,989 people in Mecklenburg Counting living in poverty. The goal of About Face Charlotte is to share the stories of this unacceptably large number of people living in poverty – “To inspire us all to step beyond ourselves and into a more compassionate way of being. Stories that connect people to people, and help us all remember to care for each other.” (http://aboutfaceclt.org/why/)
I wanted to share their site with you all. You can sign up for their newsletter where they share these stories. It’s truly inspiring and has surely lit a flame inside of me and I hope it will do the same for you.
It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day, but sometimes even a small reminder of how fortunate we are is all we need to help us take a step outside of ourselves.
“THE MEANING OF LIFE IS TO FIND YOUR GIFT. THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS TO GIVE IT AWAY.”
-Pablo Picasso
Click here to hear Shareka’s (pictured above; via About Face Charlotte) story.
