With so many people out of work, on government help programs and who have difficulty budgeting, Nampa Idaho has one of the very best community programs that I have ever heard of or been a part of. Love Inc is a private, Christian organization that is run primarily by the work of volunteers - thousands of volunteers for the multitude of different programs it has. One of the main programs that Love Inc has is called the New Hope Relational Program. People who are having trouble budgeting and making ends meet are able to join this program and get a budget counselor to work with them and help them find places they could cut back, negotiate debt down with creditors and a whole multitude of other things. It is a big commitment - every Thursday evening for a whole year. Besides this program Love Inc also has what they call "Gap Ministries" to help people who need things such as clothing, bicycles, coats & warm clothing, baby items, firewood, foster care kits, furniture & appliances, other household products, lawn care, school supplies and so much more. People in the program also get help with food, gas, and many other things, but best of all they are taught how to budget, how to pinch pennies, how to do things such as can, coupon shop, grow their own food through a master garden love inc has every year, cook, negotiate with their creditors, job skills to look for additional income producing jobs and much, much more. People that successfully complete this program get off of government assistance programs and are able to better there lives. A large number of people who go through the program also turn around and become budget counselors to other clients or volunteer in other ways. It truly is an amazing, amazing community program.
Check out Love Inc of Treasure Valley here.
For the past 4 years or so, until this year when I had my baby daughter and have taken a break, I have been a budget counselor. It is an extremely rewarding, eye opening and humbling thing to be a part of and I learn so much from it. I plan to go back to it when my daughter is a little older. I have also previously volunteered in other ways as well. Now that I find myself less able to give my time, I regularly support the program monetarily. This past Tuesday was the annual fundraiser - their biggest donation day of the year. This year, though I am not able to give my time, on Tuesday I was able to give monetarily to contribute to this fundraiser (where total they were able to raise over $48,000) and am committed to give monthly. Not only did they raise a great deal of money, but they also had 52 "graduates" of the budget program participate in the fundraiser and help show just how much the program and different ministries have changed their lives. One of my past budget clients was one of those participants an is now a budget counselor to two budget clients. Talk about pay it forward!!
I would love to see more communities have wonderfully effective programs such as these. It's pretty awesome.
Comments(2)