March 9, 2005
Concert hope for homeless
Hope for the Homeless Benefit Concert raises $4,550 for outreach program
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
The faith, hope and community that buoyed nearly 500 people at the Faith Reformed Church Friday evening starkly contrasted to the cold, hopeless, daily struggles for survival by a homeless person.
As 480 people gathered at the church for the Hope for the Homeless Benefit Concert, Jerry DeRousse reminded them of the suffering of the less fortunate.
"Right now, as we sit here in warm comfortable surroundings, there are more than 300 persons out on the street who are homeless, hungry and cold," said DeRousse, the Homeless Outreach Program Coordinator for Goodwill and emcee for the evening.
"Homelessness used be an invisible thing," he continued. "We have the images of a lady pushing the shopping cart down the street, but the homeless population assimilates pretty well into the community. I can walk around downtown and point out a dozen to you."
Determined to make a difference with the people he meets and works with every day, DeRousse jumped at the idea of a concert suggested by volunteer Lynn Flynn. A veteran musician and devout Christian, he tapped his friends and peers for help and compiled a line-up of 12 acts for the concert.
Participants included Dave Gibbons, Glory Dance Works, Sarah Brush, the College Terrace Wesleyan Praise Team, Carrie Hart and Marshall and Mary Collins.
"I was fortunate, not only are they my friends but I was fortunate to have Christian brothers and sisters who have a heart for the Lord and a heart for the homeless," he said. "I was very blessed, I had them play for free for me."
The evening raised $4,550 for the Team Outreach Program, which is a is a coalition of social and human service agencies and faith-based organizations. DeRousse said members include the Women's Resource Center shelter, Third Level, Addiction Treatment Services, Northwest Michigan Human Services and Community Mental Health. Other components of Team Outreach are approximately nine churches plus community volunteers.
"It takes a community to help, everybody working together, and that's what Team Outreach is all about," noted DeRousse, who joined Goodwill as an Americorps VISTA volunteer in February 2004.
Flynn, a volunteer with the program, said the proceeds from the concert will help Team Outreach aid the homeless after some funding cuts.
"The hearts of the people in our community are just so wonderful," she said. "This will keep the program going."
The sole staff member of Team Outreach, DeRousse and volunteers pass out survival bags to the homeless in a five-county region, 70 percent of whom are single men. These bags include blankets, food, water, first aid supplies and hygiene supplies and other necessities of life on the edge.
He acknowledges that the bags are "treating the symptoms," not treating the problem. Team Outreach tackles the underlying issues of homelessness, such as poverty or substance abuse, by forming relationships with people living in their cars, the woods or other makeshift shelters.
He terms this a wraparound, holistic approach to alleviating homelessness.
"You develop a relationship and get to know these folks so you can say, 'Hey, let's work on your substance abuse issue, let's get you back on your meds,'" DeRousse said. "That's why we stay with people and build a relationship with them on a daily basis so we can link them to services already out there in these agencies. We're the front line workers."
DeRousse highly praises the community meals program and emergency shelter program, the latter instituted by area churches this winter. Now extended through April 2, this program provides overnight shelter for up to 30 people on a rotating basis at local churches.
"You go Tuesday night at 5:30 to the Nazarene Church and there'll be anywhere from 100-150 homeless people eating dinner there," said DeRousse. "It'll b