72425 Via Vail
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
760-321-0694
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November 2022 Share the Plate
November 20, 2022
November’s Share the Plate to Benefit the Holiday Gift Drive for SafeHouse of the Desert & Harrison House
It’s holiday time and UUCOD is once again Sharing the Plate with SafeHouse of the Desert and its transitional living facility, Harrison House. Your generous giving will be used to purchase Target e-gift cards from our RaiseRight (formerly known as Scrip) program, which recipients will use to buy their own presents (based on what they need) for the holidays. One staff member tells us that, essentially, we are the only source of holiday gifts for these vulnerable youths!
SafeHouse of the Desert is part of Operation SafeHouse, which has been doing its important work in our county for more than three decades. SafeHouse of the Desert is a life-saving shelter for youth ages 11 to 17 who have run away from home or whose parents no longer want them there. One national runaway organization estimates that there are more than two million young people who run away annually! Some have been victims of human trafficking, especially in recent years, and have no place to go once they are picked up by police.
SafeHouse operates two shelters, one in Riverside and the other one here in the Coachella Valley, that provide approximately 600 runaway, homeless, and at-risk youth with over 4,000 bed nights annually. Harrison House is transitional housing for young adults 18 to 21 years of age, some of whom have “aged out” of the foster care system and have limited ability and resources to live on their own. SafeHouse also provides on-site schooling, including GED classes, individual cognitive behavioral therapy, group counseling, financial education, employment assistance, and life skills. SafeHouse’s transitional living programs serve approximately 40 youth and their children (yes their children) annually.
These youth are transitioning to adulthood under very challenging and undeserved circumstances. Your donation is a vital act to help provide a happier holiday for these youth and young adults who have literally nowhere to go and need everything.
Let’s send forth those tiny ripples of hope! Please give as generously as you are able. For more information, please contact Bob Rancourt.
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.