Amazing First Art Show – Dignity Art!

Last night was amazing! We had two of the four artist present, over 50 pieces of art, 80+ people in attendance, and over 50 pieces of art auctioned. Additionally, we had a few sponsors present like TreadStone Valuations, Cozzee Coffee, Reveal Magazine, and a powerful spoken word artist (Subject to Change).

It was an amazing experience. Below are a few photos from the event!10383570_933857876651378_5438921309282195327_n12106998_933914449979054_4087926244591816805_n12074794_934072826629883_3251670561494009926_n

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LBW Team

One Day – Two Serve Locations

This coming Saturday will be pretty huge for how we share love in the city! For the firs time, we will disperse to separate serve teams out into the city to serve both downtown and in College Park for Thanksgiving!

Not only will we have an opportunity to share love with those who are homeless, but we will also take love to under resourced families in College Park! We are calling this #loveonthego

oneday

LBW Team

Donations & Monthly Contributions

While we are continuing to get our office space/storage locations ready for operation, we still have a few ways that you can contribute items or monetary donations to our organization.

For item donations:

You can review the list of items that we need for our office space on our Wish List tab and can Contact Us for the best location to drop those items off.

For monetary contributions:

We are currently looking for monthly contributors. You can donate monthly for any amount you would like on our GoFundMe account. Simply click “donate.” Next to the box for the amount, check “Yes! Donate each month.”

If you would prefer, you can also donate on our Paypal account – you can choose to turn that into a monthly contribution as well.

As always, we would like to thank all of our volunteers, and all the people who have donated money, items or their time. We simply wouldn’t be able to accomplish all of our goals for the city of Atlanta without the support of the community. Thank you!

Jamie

72 Hours & Collaboration

Over the last week, I have received calls from all over: L.A., New York, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, and a few other states. Many people from these states are talking about possible collaborative efforts, and wanted to know how #lovebeyondwalls could come to those states to help raise awareness.

Although we are pacing ourselves here in the city of Atlanta, I learned something very important about homelessness (in my 72 Hours), what it will take to combat it, how we can help those who are living on the streets without any resources or means, and what it will take to raise awareness across this country about this epidemic.

It takes collaboration! It takes an army of people banded together taking #lovebeyondwalls to make a difference in this sensitive area. Why? Because homelessness is a vast issue. There are many causes for homelessness in the United States: Addiction, Poverty, Job-loss, Foreclosures, Mental health, Lack of affordable housing, Domestic Violence, and a host of other social issues.

n6KjYIunBY-6_vjceLV505TD-_YOsR9hHYyx0EPoh3MIn fact, a stat shows that out of the 300+ million people that live in the United States 3.5 million of those people are expected to be homeless each year (stat taken from homeaid.org). This isn’t something a few organizations, or a couple people passing out sandwiches can handle alone. This epidemic will take people from all sorts of industries, churches, faith communities, backgrounds, and neighborhoods to come up with solutions to this problem (and work together not individually). Will it be easy? No. But, it will have to start in the trenches (grassroots), and expand nationally.

It’s just as my IG friend Arkeedah McCormick says, “Collaboration is truly amazing! You get to meet, listen, and engage with many individuals and hear their stories.”

Collaboration will do three things:

1) Create strength. Unity is a powerful tool, and has the ability to provide strength to any movement or cause.

2) Create resources. No one person or organization has all the resources, but through collaboration and unity strength and resources appear.

3) Create a voice. When people band together to take #lovebeyondwalls, the voiceless are heard, and their issues are discussed.

In 2014, #lovebeyondwalls will partner with people from all over to make a difference, and raise more awareness about homelessness in the city of Atlanta, and in the United States. If you are reading this, and would like to partner contact us [HERE].

A few days ago, #lovebeyondwalls mobilized 300+ people to resource people with food, clothes, and other items to survive on the streets in downtown Atlanta. It took collaboration!

Check out the video showing the collaborative efforts below:

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Terence