Tag Archives: news

Posted
March 30, 2013
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Church Under The Bridge

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I see the Lincoln Financial Building from where I stand — in a dirt parking lot, underneath the Eugene Street bridge, near a scrawl of graffiti.

This is church.

Or really, Phil’s church.

He pulls his hair back in a ponytail and often wears his ball cap backward. He’s a big guy with a cat named Ghost.

He lives in a tent near downtown…

>> Read all of Jeri Rowe: Finding grace under Eugene Street bridge. (News-Record.com)

>> Visit Church Under The Bridge and 16 Cents Ministry on Facebook.

Posted
November 5, 2012
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Lelia Moore is News & Record’s Woman of the Year!

“…UNCG graduate and congregational nurse coordinator at Cone Health Systems [Lelia Moore] was announced today as the News & Record’s Woman of the Year during a sold-out Women to Women luncheon…

The event, sponsored by the Women to Women Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, provides help to improve the lives of women and their families…

Moore nurtured the Congregational Nurse Program to life at Cone Health, which pairs health care professionals and faith communities for health education, screenings and consultations. The free Missions of Mercy dental clinics she coordinates locally — where people show up days in advance and form long lines — have provided care for 2,012 people, with an estimated value of more than $1 million.

Recently, Moore used a donor’s gift to Cone Health to help establish Healing Opportunities for People Experiencing Sickness, which provides transitional care to discharged homeless hospital patients — such as nurses and social workers to check on them, hotel rooms and connections…”

>> continue reading “Lelia S. Moore named News & Record Woman of the Year”

I met Lelia in fall 2007, when we were members of the first Guilford Academy of Substance Abuse Recovery Advocates. In the years since then, I’ve been so grateful for the work of Cone’s Congregational Nurses in caring for the homeless people that our StreetWatch team also serves, and the assistance of one of those nurses in particular has been invaluable to us. I’m so thankful to Lelia for her work with the Congregational Nurses Program. What a huge gift they are to our homeless services system in Greensboro!

I recently got to serve on a planning grant committee with Lelia, and it was a blessing to get to see her smiling face again. I’m so pleased to hear that she’s the recipient of the News & Record’s Woman of the Year Award. She’s not the type to seek glory for herself and she works to serve the poor and homeless on their behalf and not her own. God honors that kind of service and that kind of heart. Congratulations, Lelia, and may the Lord continue to bless you and your work and ministry in this city.

I want to also acknowledge Sharon Sumner and Craig Thomas, who were among the finalists for the award, and who serve in Christian ministries to homeless people in Greensboro. From the News & Record article:

Also, Sheron K. Sumner, the executive director of StepUp Ministry, who started the Hot Dish and Hope collaboration of churches to provide fellowship and meals to the homeless or hungry two days a week; and Craig Thomas, executive director of Mary’s House, one of the few transitional homes for formerly homeless women in addiction recovery and their children.

Thank you and God bless you, ladies!

Posted
October 14, 2012
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Facebook & Twitter updates on my friend Terry, who was hit by a train

Friday, 10/12/12, 6:02pm
Police called today after homeless friend was hit & hurt by train. Went to get friend who was with him & tell others. Rough day. Plz pray.
via Twitter

Friday, 10/12/12 7:23pm
Our friend Terry, who was hit by a train today, is in surgery right now. Please stop and pray for him when you read this message. We’ll update you when we have news. Please also pray for peace for his friends. Thank you.
via Facebook

Friday, 10/12/12 8:27pm
Time flies… until your friend is in surgery… and then it crawls.
via Facebook

Friday, 10/12/12 9:45pm
Michele Forrest was with Kirstin Cassell at Moses Cone ICU
via Facebook

Saturday, 10/13/12 1:12am
Update on our friend Terry: Kirstin and I saw him after the surgery. He has more injuries than we were first aware of and he’s in a lot of pain, but his condition is stable. His first concern when he saw us was for the friend who was with him. We went and checked on her and all was peaceful at her camp. Thank you for your prayers, friends. ~ Michele
via Facebook

Saturday, 10/13/12 12:47pm
Michele Forrest with H & D to see Terry — at Moses Cone ICU
via Facebook

Saturday, 10/13/12 1:41pm
Michele Forrest took H & D from FM tent city to visit Terry, who was hit by train. In ICU, serious but stable. Prayers appreciated.
via Twitter

Saturday, 10/13/12 8:47pm
Michele Forrest checking on a friend… pray with us. ♥ — with Kirstin Cassell at Moses Cone ICU.
via Facebook

Note: My friend Terry remains in ICU in serious condition. We are grateful for your prayers for him. It’s now Sunday, 10/14/12 at 12:36am.

Posted
October 6, 2012
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image credit: CM Forrest, StreetWatch

News & Record joins us on tent city tour with Olympian Joey Cheek

image credit: CM Forrest, StreetWatch

My StreetWatch team partner Kirstin Cassell and I took Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek, his mom, Chris Cheek, and his girlfriend, Margaux Isaksen to meet some of our homeless friends at the FM tent city on Thursday, Oct. 4th. The News & Record’s Tina Firesheets went along and here’s what she had to say:

Joey Cheek and his entourage veered off the newly finished Downtown Greenway on Thursday into a wooded area that the Greensboro native didn’t know existed.

The campsite below the Freeman Mill Road bridge is home to a group of homeless people who look out for one another like family.

They didn’t know much about Cheek — other than he’s an Olympic gold medalist. Still, they like visitors, homeless advocate Michele Forrest said.

“They were impressed that he’s willing to help other (homeless) people,” she said.

Cheek approached a circle of chairs between a large tent and a fire pit, introduced himself and struck up conversation. They told him about their frustrations and hardships. Some spoke of their work or families.

Joey spent over an hour around the fire circle talking to some of the residents of the tent city and hearing their stories. He then toured the property, saw each of the individual camp sites and learned more about the history of the tent city, which has been on the downtown Greensboro property for as long as I can remember.

The tent city residents are usually wary of folks who want to tour their camps. But I had talked to them a few days earlier to get their permission to bring Joey to meet them and I’d told them that he’d founded Team Darfur, to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis there, that he’d donated his Olympic medal winnings to Right to Play, prompting other athletes to do the same, resulting in $390,000 in donations for the charity and that now he was coming to Greensboro to raise awareness and raise funds for the IRC. In the N&R article, Tina writes that the tent city residents were impressed that Joey helped “other (homeless) people”, but they were actually equally impressed by his work with Team Darfur and Right to Play. (Me, too.)

>> Read about Joey’s visit to the Interactive Resource Center: Olympian Joey Cheek visits Greensboro’s homeless at NewsRecord.com.

Posted
October 1, 2012
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Connect @ the IRC

Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek at the IRC Oct 4th & 5th

Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek will be in Greensboro on October 4th and 5th to help raise awareness and raise funds for the Interactive Resource Center, a day center and resource and services hub for people who are homeless, formerly homeless and facing homelessness.

From the News & Record [article no longer available online]:

“The whole idea of having Joey here started with a discussion of how the majority of people in Greensboro still don’t know we exist or understand the need behind why we exist,” [IRC director Liz] Seymour said. “We’re chugging along every day.”

Connect @ the IRC

A Dudley High School graduate, Cheek was inducted into The World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame because of his work in the Darfur region of Sudan. The Washington Post calls him the last of the activist-athletes.

Cheek, who helped the IRC raise seed money through Operation Greensboro Cares, will spend Thursday at the IRC and at the city’s homeless camps. As part of the city’s First Friday event, he will meet and greet people from 6 to 9 p.m. at the center.

People who attend are asked to bring their phones to tweet and text along with Cheek, who plans to bring pentathlete Margaux Isaksen, the 2012 Junior World Champion.

“This is a situation that has a major impact in our own community, and he wanted to come home and learn more and be involved,” said Chris Cheek, the Olympian’s mother and an IRC board member for the past year. “He had a lot of people help him with his training, and he’s realized there’s a responsibility that comes with what he’s had the opportunity to do.”

The day center offers a place to shower and wash laundry, somewhere to meet and discuss concerns, and a jumping-off point for improving job skills and finding work. Many clients are either homeless or were until recently. Others are facing the prospect of homelessness.

>> More from the IRC: Joey Cheek is coming to the IRC!
>> IRC on Facebook: Event > First Friday: Joey Cheek @ the IRC