John Tumino

Today was a scorcher during Hire Ground clean up around the community, the heat index was at 100 degrees! This crew of 6 awesome friends picked up over 900 Gallons of debris through out our community. Many have said that Panhandlers and Homeless individuals do not want to work but we have seen different. Week after week we go out and give those who our struggling and opportunity to obtain dignity through the sweat of their brow and the work of their hands. Our friends might not be to the point of obtaining regular employment because of many scenarios of brokenness but we encourage them and show them that if they can work a 5 hour shift with us during their struggles to imagine what could happen if they allow us to lead them to wholeness. Nothing is Impossible for anyone especially when you have someone standing in your corner encouraging you and advocating for your needs to be met. So after a hard days work Kevin and Carolyn treated our Crew to ICE CREAM, who doesn’t like ice cream? Together Sous Chefs with your support we are Building Hope and Changing Lives

John and Leigh Ann

Its never ceases to amazing me how a wonderful lunch can open a door for change to happen. Food becomes a real living tool for dialogue to begin and for Hope to arrive. Today we were able to connect with a young woman on the corner, we asked her if she needed anything else other than lunch because we were really concerned for her. She paused for a moment, looked up and said she wanted to go to a detox to get off Heroine. We let her know that we had connections to Helio Health and their Cody Team who could come right out to start the process. Our friend agreed we called our friend Jacob from Helio and he was over to our location within 25 minutes to do an intake. One of the things that starts to happen when the ball starts rolling is cold feet and a change of mind, our friend started to say that she was having a tooth issue and needed antibiotics before she could go. Our friend forgot that Dr. Lehmann was with us and I said Doc can take care of that right now, thats when Jacob pulled up from Helio. Doc assessed her tooth gave her some antibiotics to take for the rest of the week and then we introduced her to Jacob and made the connection. Jacob was assessing her and then going to see if there was a bed available today for her. This is just one of many out of the box scenarios that happen on the streets for our friends. I always tell them my connections are your connection my friends are your friends, Relationships Minimize Risk for our friends and with your continued support all these out of the box scenarios become possible. Thank You

John and Leigh Ann

Today Kat and I were on special assignment looking for two friends that were no longer staying at their usual homeless encampment. We heard they were run out because of an altercation with another homeless individual. Living outdoors with others can be challenging especially when there is drug addiction and mental health concerns with others. For their safety they made a decision to relocate which for outreach workers can be challenging because now we have to find them all over again. Kat and I drove all around town looking for them and just when we were about to call it a day we found them. We were able to love them listen to the story of what happened and encourage them to do housing paperwork, they AGREED. They jumped in the Van for the intake were we were able to share our story with them of why we do this and how much we cared for them. It was a very touching emotional time with tears of sadness and joy flowing. Next step getting connected to Onondaga County Social Services for food stamps and Temporary assistance. They both shared a true willingness to deal with their challenges and we let them know we would be with them through the whole process. Its all about Relationship Building were TRUST can be established. They keep saying to us your awesome, amazing and they couldn’t believe we would do this for them. I told them both about ALL of YOU who support our Mission and that we ALL believe in them. Thank you so much for all your support and prayers. Today was a great MIRACLE to be able to find them so quickly.

John and Leigh Ann

Today we came across some very hurt and broken individuals who were suffering from very serious addiction issues. From a young man with a cut foot that we were able to clean dress and bandage to a young man staying under a bridge. Both Men are caught in the trap of Heroine and are struggling. We offered assistance and guidance in both scenarios and both men refused the hand up. Our mission at IMFK is not to judge but to continue to show love and compassion to our friends so that when they are ready to make a move out they will accept our hands that will be there waiting for them. We believe Love never fails and we will continue to come out to our friends with a NO STRINGS approach. We do not not someones surrender moment we just want to be standing there when they say I SURRENDER.

We received a Message from a Homeless friend who said he was now living in a campsite in the woods. He informed us of the location and during street outreach we went searching. It was about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile hike to the site, when we arrived he was no were to be found. We left a message as well as food and supplies with our phone number. When you come across these types of living situations it becomes heavy on the heart, you start to think about lonely nights in the woods but also a concern for someones safety! If something were to happen there is no one around to help. We will continue to visit this site and hope to see our friend soon and be able to get him out of this situation. Thank you for your continued support of our work together we are Building Hope and Changing Lives,
John and Leigh Ann