More than 13,000 residents of some of Philadelphia’s most poverty-stricken neighborhoods recently attended at least one of eight simultaneous Convoy of Hope community outreaches that were dubbed Hope-4-Philly.
“The strategy of doing multi-site is to take our community outreaches to the people,” says Dan Clark, an outreach director for Convoy of Hope. “In doing multiple sites we take the travel obstacles out of the equation for many families while also allowing the local churches and organizations be the heroes and have a bigger stake in the event.”
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Ella and her two young children were thankful one of the outreaches was at Chalmers Park in their North Philadelphia neighborhood. “Times are tight, but we get by,” says Ella. “The groceries will help out a lot.”
At each outreach honored guests received a meal, groceries, health and dental screenings, haircuts, family portraits, job placement assistance and entertainment free of charge.
“This place is nice and positive,” says Joyce, who was laid off six months ago. “The local churches are sticking together to give people hope and let us know that there are people out there who care.”
Sixteen hundred volunteers from more than 200 local churches and organizations set up and ran each site, which were custom tailored to each neighborhood.
“Besides being very cost efficient, having multiple sites enables us to serve a wide array of people from diverse backgrounds,” adds Clark. “In one day we served and made contact with thousands of single mothers, the working poor, homeless people and many others.”
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