The Official Dancing Deer Baking Co. Blog

In 2008, as many as 43,050 individuals in Virginia experienced homelessness. Source

20% of households experiencing homelessness during this time included households with dependent children. Source

From 2005 to 2006, there were more than 18,000 homeless children in Virginia. Of this total, 8,600 children were in grades K-8, 7,600 of them under age 6, and nearly 2,000 were high school students. Source

In Virginia, the number of foreclosures more than doubled during the first 11 months of 2008, compared with all of 2007. Source

Trish will be at the Caritas Shelter in Glen Allen, VA tonight.

Where will you be?

Get involved.

I had the immense pleasure of working with Reverend Laura Benson at PLM Familes Together in Raleigh, NC. Rev. Benson coordinated a landing event for Trish in Raleigh that combined many leaders of the Raleigh community dedicated to end homelessness. She took the time to send me a wonderful blog post with her reflections on the event.

Thank you so much, Rev. Benson for your time and hospitality!

It was really exciting to see Trish ride up the hill to visit us here in Raleigh/Wake County, North Carolina on Monday, April 27. Applause broke out from a group of shelter leaders and case managers, county housing team members, Triangle United Way representatives, corporate executives who share leadership in the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, and employees of The Redwoods Group (another Winning Workplace award recipient and philanthropic leader like Dancing Deer). Trish immediately went to meet Betty, an Oak Hollow resident, whose 4 year old granddaughter proudly says, “This is my playground,” pointing to the brightly painted equipment in the yard.

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I had a great conversation this morning with Edward Judkins, Program Director at the Caritas Shelter in Glen Allen, Virginia (just outside of Richmond). As we’re moving through these cities, it’s always a pleasure speaking with these directors and getting their perspective of homelessness in their city. Edward was more than happy to share his thoughts on the roots of homelessness, and on a hopeful note, how to keep a family off the streets and on the right track.

I started off by asking him the reasons why families become homeless in Richmond. Think about it, as a fellow Deer said to me this morning “We’re all one or two bad decisions away from become homeless”

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I interviewed Miss Betty on the porch of her home in the Oak Hollow transitional housing complex. Her disabilities are severe. Tomorrow her son is having brain surgery for a malignancy. But she is able to manage her very challenging life from a stable home base. Because she has a home she has been able to keep her granddaughter, Brianna, out of the foster care system and give her a brighter future

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Charlotte, NC
I had a wonderful conversation with Cynthia late on the evening of our stay in the this shelter. She and I were equally exhausted but for dramatically different reasons of course. I knew a bit about her story from the staff. So we got quickly in to a conversation about life and exchanged ideas about how the world could be. I was struck by her thoughtfulness and her determination both to move forward for her own family and also be mindful of how she could simultaneously be helping others with their challenges. I knew that neither she nor her daughter would appear to be “homeless” to anyone on whose door she knocked while doing her census work. Homeless families are your family and my family with an extra challenge of some kind which triggered at a time when they had no support system to catch them before they fell off the edge.

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