July 2, 2025 • 38 mins
OUR MISSION
We transform the lives of those experiencing homelessness through the love of Christ.
OUR VISION
We are a model community providing hope and healing to Pittsburgh's homeless and hurting.
OUR WEBSITE
https://www.lightoflife.org/
We transform the lives of those experiencing homelessness through the love of Christ.
OUR VISION
We are a model community providing hope and healing to Pittsburgh's homeless and hurting.
OUR WEBSITE
https://www.lightoflife.org/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
And welcome in. This is the CEO's You Should Know Podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hartwell, let's say hello to Reverend
Jirell T. Gilliam, the executive director of Light of Life
Rescue Mission. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, Johnny, it's so good to be with you. Excited
for our time together.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So tell us everything we need to know about the mission.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, Light of Life has been in existence since nineteen
fifty two and we've been serving Pittsburgh and those who
are hungry and need a place since that time. However,
since nineteen fifty two, there's been a big change in
the people who are experiencing homelessness, and over the years
we've had to expand our services. So a lot of
(00:43):
times when people think a lot of life, they usually
think of the holiday meals, which is very big for us.
The media does a great job of covering Thanksgiving and
Christmas and Easter as well, and those are great times
of service. But we're we're three sixty five, seven days
a week, twenty four to seven. We're always open and
(01:05):
we're encouraging people to remember that we're here all year round.
And then as we began to serve those are a need.
We started realizing that while like I go back to
the nineties when I first started working with the mission,
and at that point, when crack cocaine first hit the streets,
(01:28):
it really changed the dynamic of those who were coming.
Before that alcohol was probably the number one drug of choice,
but then it quickly crack cocaine and cocaine began to
grow and we started seeing a younger demographic. Before it
was in the fifties or sixties that we would see
(01:51):
and mostly men. Then we started seeing younger and younger
people get involved, and then we started seeing women with children.
And so currently the fastest two portions of the homeless
community or those experiencing housing and security, is women with
children and.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Those who are older adults.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And so again, when most people think of those experiencing homelessness,
you don't think of this woman that is pushing a
stroller at Point Park at six o'clock at night as
being a person is potentially homeless. But that's the fastest
growing population. And so we knew from that that we
needed to expand what we do, and so we ended
(02:36):
up opening a part of our organization is for women
with children, and then we have one for women who
do not have their children. We have expanded as well
into outreach because we realize, especially as we moved into
the two thousands and the opioid pandemic started happening before
(02:58):
the other pandemic, it really changed the dynamic as well.
Before people were coming from a certain socioeconomic background, but
fentanyl and opioids, it just leveled the playing field. And
so we have people every from rural, suburban, urban, high,
(03:22):
net worth low. It just doesn't matter. It's hit everyone.
And what we noticed was that people were not coming
to us as they had in the past. Before we
could just be there. They would come for a meal,
they would come for a place to stay. But with
this it was different. People were staying out, they were
staying in camps, they were staying on the corners, and
(03:46):
so we realized we had to change our model. So
we started a outreach team and they began going out
to the streets, going to the camps, going to wherever
people were to try to build relatelationship with them, to
invite them to come in, to give them a bottle
water or hygiene kit. But every touch was an opportunity
(04:09):
for a relationship. What we were trying to do is
build trust, and so slowly they would begin to come
in off the street. Maybe it would just be for
meal for some of them would be okay, get a shower, Well,
but will you promise to bring me back? And we
say okay, that's fine, and we would do that and
then they would say okay, I'll come, and then maybe
(04:30):
they'll stay overnight, and slowly a person begins to trust again.
And so now we have what we call a continuum
of care. So it goes the whole gamut from prevention
on one side. You know, we want to help people
not get a victim from their apartments. We want to
help shore. We want to be sure that people are
(04:52):
able to stay where they are. A person should not
have to become homeless in order to get assistance, so
we have rental assistance. We sometimes will be the mediators
between landlords and those who are about to be evicted.
And so we work on that side of it, helping
people with financial help and budgeting and all those things
(05:16):
that help them stay in their apartment, mental health support
all the way through those who need some type of
emergency food or service or a day center place to stay.
They're not in a program, but they just need some
kind of assistance. So we have a food pantry, we
have clothes, a donation center, so all of those things
(05:37):
we've learned from the people who receive from us is
without those resources, they would not be able to stay
in their apartments. The little the things that we're able
to provide, it helps them to make ends meet. And
then there are those. Then we move from that into
those who actually need to come into our programs, and
then we have a wide variety depending on their background
(06:00):
of where they need to what kind of assistance they need.
For some it's just a few weeks or a month
or two to get on their feet, save some money
for a first month's rent and last month's rent, and
they're ready to go. Others they need a lot more support,
mental health support, job training, whatever it is that they need,
(06:22):
and so we come alongside them. So it can go
from just a month all the way up to two years. Wow.
And so it just depends on what the needs are.
And then on the end of that is the alumni
people who graduate. We stay in touch with them and
we want to make sure they continue to be successful.
(06:43):
And one of the big things about our program is
that once you've been helped. Part of being healthy is
helping others, and so they want to give back, and
so that alumni association is very important. It's run by
people who have graduated the program, but they reach out
and share the good news with others and help out
(07:04):
with various programming that goes on. And our graduations are
always a time of celebration where someone goes from a
graduate to be an alumni and they're embraced into this
new community and then from there they lived their life
and it's a wonderful thing. One of the most exciting
things for me, rewarding things, is to be at a
(07:26):
place at a Giant Eagle or somebody or somewhere and
somebody walks up to me and says, you know what,
I was in your program back in nineteen ninety or
twenty twenty one or whatever it was. And here's my kids,
and here's my husband or here's my wife and things
are going well. Now here's my grandkids. I was at
Kennywood one time and person introduced me to a grandkids
(07:46):
and they're having a great time, and it's like, man,
this is wonderful. This is what it's about. Why do
we do what we do is for that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Now, this is a faith based organization. Yes, So tell
me how you came to your faith and how you
think that is going to help the individuals that come
to the mission.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well, I always loved talking about my faith. My faith
came really through my dad. I'm my mom. But my
dad was a pastor for a number of years in
the South Hills of Pittsburgh. And years ago he was
a heavyweight boxer. He was about to go pro was
he was really good, but he was very empty when
(08:26):
he shares about his life back then. And he actually
was impacted by a guy. His name was Reverend Harold Tinker,
who was a former Crawford baseball player. And I just
recently took his picture. He's on home the Homestead, grays Bridge.
His picture is up to Harold Tinker and they called
(08:49):
him Hooks. And my dad watched him. He was in
the Hill district and just a ladies man and a
drinker and all those things. And my dad said it
one day this he made a commitment to Christ and
he changed. His mouth was foul before and his behavior
was just really bad. And my dad would watch him
(09:10):
and he just seemed to be so much at peace,
and at one point my dad asked him, like, what
was the change, and he shared it with him, and
then my dad had a similar experience and he changed,
and my mother as well. So they raised us in
this home and that was really my first exposure to
light of life was with them. They would take us
(09:31):
out to the county jail, to the mission and have
us visit people, and it was just part of our life.
And from a young boy, I wanted to have a
relationship with God like my dad, and I knew the
part of that was God healing me of my brokenness,
(09:52):
but also seeing that help others. But a real turning
point for me, to answer your question, even from at
one point in my life, I became a paramedic and
I went through the Center's program here in Pittsburgh, and
I was running, you know, with several ambulance companies here
(10:13):
in town. And there was this one day I was
up in the Hill District. I was with the City
of Pittsburgh. I was doing a rotation as a paramedic
there and we were in the Hill District. We were
leaving and I had seen this scene a hundred times,
you know, there's the male was being I don't know
if he is a boyfriend or her husband or father,
(10:35):
but he was being taken to the hospital for something.
And I just happened to look up from the ambulance
and I saw the mother and the two small children
kind of clutching the kids and looking at the ambulance,
and this look in her eyes was like she was afraid,
like this was her protector, but there was also uncertainty.
(10:59):
There was so many emotions that were over her at
that particular time, and for some reason, that picture stayed
in my in my mind. When I went back to
the we took him to the emergency room. I went
back to the station and I kept seeing her, and
at that moment I had this epiphany. Really, I think
it was a calling. It was like, you know what,
(11:21):
I could be the best paramedic in the world, but
if I don't do something that gets upstream, this cycle
will never change. And that's when I began to really
I was in my early twenties at that point, and
I was like, I want to do something that's going
to change the trajectory for communities like this, And I
(11:42):
thought of the political arena, I thought of social services arena,
all these different things and eventually what I said was
what I'd realized was real. Change doesn't happen until the
heart changes, and so I wanted to dedicate my life
to heart being changed. And for me, that change happened
(12:05):
through a relationship with God. For people who go through
twelve steps, they'll talk about having this understanding there's a
power that's greater than themselves, and so I agree with
that that there's something that's greater. I did not have
the power to change my life. I would try. I
would try, I try to do will power, do all
(12:27):
the things that I wanted to, but it would fail.
And when I began to believe that there was a
God that loved me, accepted me as I was and would,
but also love me enough not to leave me the
way he found me, that's where I found hope. And
so Light of Life does that on a regular basis.
We provide now a place. The thing that I like
(12:48):
to add, though, is that because we are a faith
based organization, it doesn't mean that we only serve people
of faith. It's actually because of that we serve anyone.
People who have no faith have different faith. What we
feel like the example of Christ is is that he
loved everyone. When you read his stories, he didn't just
go to Jewish people. He didn't go to just people
(13:10):
who believed in him. He would cross the street, he
would go to people who were on the outside, and
he loved them. He loved them just where they were.
And that's that's the example. So for us, the test is,
no matter who you are, what lifestyle choice you pick,
when you walk through our doors, do you feel love,
(13:33):
do you feel acceptance? Do you feel welcomed? That's our
goal and many tell us that that's what they experience
when they come there. So we want to create a
welcoming community for anyone in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
All Right, So you've gave me a lot to ask
you about, and so talking about the mission, when did
you start with? You said in the nineties, that's when
you started, yes, And how did you start?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yes? I started in the nineties, from ninety to ninety four.
I started off as a counselor and a chaplain, and
before that I was a volunteer. And so I would
volunteer at the mission. As I said, I would go
there with my parents in my adult life. I also
would go there to speak in their chapel. So I
was a volunteer. Then I worked. I worked there and
(14:20):
then I left the area for about eight years. I
worked for Promise Keepers on in Denver. I worked for
a recording company, a Christian recording company called Integrity Music
that was a mobile and then I moved back to Pittsburgh.
But wherever I moved, I would be involved with the
missions in that area.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Okay, you're a Pittsburgh guy. Did you have that calling
to come back to Pittsburgh?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, yes, yes. I always felt like this was home
and so I couldn't wait to get back. When the
opportunity came at the end of being a mobile, I
was excited to get back here.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So when did you take over as executive director?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That was about six years ago now, and I've been
this time of working there. I've been there for about
fourteen years. So it's like it's it's changed over the time,
over over time.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
How has it changed? Yeah, well, how has it changed
since you've taken over?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, well, it's changed because of the nature of those
that we serve. It's needed to change.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Okay, let me ask you what is how it's obviously
a need, how big of a need or how how
the you know when it comes to unhoused or homelessness,
or the you know, drug and alcohol, you know problem
that we have in Pittsburgh. How big of a problem
do you see it?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, well it's a it's a it's a huge problem.
It's a growing problem. One of the challenges is not
only here in Allegheny County, but across the country, there
is a there is a method of estimating the number
of homeless in a city called point in time the
PIT survey. And so the philosophy behind that is that,
(16:06):
and this comes from the federal government, is on our
particular day, it's usually in January, but it can be
at any time. But there will be a group of
volunteers and they will go out and they will physically
count every person that's a homeless person, and then that
number becomes the official number that the county uses. So
(16:29):
this PIT survey, the point in time survey, is what
we use to estimate the number of homeless. The challenge
with that, as you could see, as you can imagine,
is that how do you identify someone who's homeless? So
you can go to camps, or you could go to
people who are holding signs. But when I do a
(16:49):
presentation on this. I have a PowerPoint and I have
these four pictures in this PowerPoint. The one is a
college student with a backpack and some friends. Another one
is a woman and a and a with a baby
carriage and a toddler walking in a park. Another is
a business looks like a business person person walking downtown.
(17:10):
And then there's a person holding a sign. And I
say which of these are homeless? And uh? And then
people will go through their their their guesses, and then
I go through each category and each one of them
are that's right? And so I share the statistics around.
You know, the I already said the fastest growing is
(17:33):
women with children. And so when those surveyors are out
and they see a woman with a carriage walking a
baby stroller walking in point park, they wouldn't walk up
to her and say are you homeless? Because they assume
that they that she is housed.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The college student is a large area. When I when
we moved to our new building, I met with doctor Bullock,
who's uh president of Community College of Allegheny County, and
he was telling me the story of having a student
that he met in an evening one time. And this
(18:12):
student was very bright and doing well in school. And
he came back the next morning and he saw the
same student. But what he noticed was the student had
the same clothes on sack. Yeah, and so he sent
his social worker to meet and talk with that young
man and it turned out that he was homeless. And
(18:33):
so again, the University of Pittsburgh did a survey right
before the pandemic and there were over two thousand students
at the University of Pittsburgh who identified themselves as having
experienced housing and security in the last year. And so
some of them weren't living on the streets, but they
(18:53):
didn't have a permanent safe place to stay. They're bouncing
from couch to couch or going, you know, from one
place to another. The Pittsburgh Public Schools does a survey
and again there's over I think it's three thousand now
Pittsburgh Public school students have been identified as again they're
(19:14):
homeless as far as they don't have a permanent address
to stay. They may not be on the street, but
they're bounced around. So this number, the actual number is huge.
I serve on the board of organization called Citygate, and
Citygate has over three hundred and twenty rescue missions in
the United States and Canada. What they've discovered in others
(19:37):
as well is that the actual number is as low
as three times but as high as ten times the
point in time survey for each city, depending on which
city that they're in, and so that is a challenge.
It is a big number. Right now, we're hovering I
didn't look recently, but we're probably hovering around twelve hundred
(19:59):
in our on our county assessment of the number. And
so even if you took the lowest, and that means
the actual number is probably more like three thousand that
are that are that are adults that are homeless on
the streets, but they're not always visible, and so they're
hiding and playing sight and so that problem that's that's growing.
(20:22):
And then we have this whole problem with affordable housing.
So you have people who are now entering in the
homeless homelessness not because of addiction or even a job,
they just can't afford it.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
You know, I would I think we'd be naive and
not recognize that homelessness is a problem from a national standpoint,
and here in Pittsburgh locally, but you're on the front lines,
you probably see things that that bureaucrats don't what do
you see that they don't.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well. One of the things that I when I have
a chance to talk to legislators and things like that,
is one is I try to help them to understand
that for the person who's experiencing chronic homelessness, they are
experiencing trauma. There was a study this adverse childhood events
to study on what are the impacts on adults when
(21:14):
they've had traumatic incidents as a child. And what they
found was that for adults who have had traumatic incidents,
they have much more likely problems with mental health, with stability,
with health, with physical health, so many things, so many
(21:34):
negative health outcomes were tied to the fact that they
had trauma. In the United States, the average adult of
all the populations, sixty percent have experienced one adverse childhood
event by the time they reached their adulthood. For those
who experiencing for those who experience homelessness, ninety percent have
(21:57):
experienced three or more adverse childhood events. So just imagine
you have this child who had some kind of adverse event.
It could be a divorce, it could be a murder
of somebody, it could be some kind of a rape
or something that they've seen, whatever it is, it's been
in their life, and they're now a child, and now
(22:18):
they experience another one, and then they experience another one.
Now they're trying to make sense of the world. And
so often if they don't have healthy adults around them
to help them navigate it, the world is going to
offer them something to numb it. And that's how many
of them end up going down this path of chasing
a way to self medicate. And so we have to
(22:40):
understand that trauma is a major factor. And then when
they're experiencing an event currently of homelessness, that's another layer
of homelessness, another layer of trauma they're experiencing. And so
I want them to understand that people are experiencing homelessness
or the same as me, you, as our brother, as
(23:01):
our sister. But for many of them, they just have
trauma after trauma after trauma. What they need most is community.
I say, often the opposite of addiction is not sobriety,
but community when we want to see people healed. When
they did that study, what they learned in that study
(23:21):
was that once a person has experienced so many levels
of trauma, their brain begins to rewire and they begin
to do less thinking in the frontal cortex where all
the decision making is, and it's more in the amygdala.
It's in the fight or flight. So that's why you'll
see people who might be on edge very easily because
(23:44):
they're just thinking of the basic needs. How do I
get high? Because I want to numb myself? What do
I need to eat? What I need to do to
do that, and their brains are like in this cycle.
The way that you break out of that cycle, they
learned is through community. If you get someone in a
safe environment where they're loved and support it, they begin
(24:05):
to get out of that fight or flight response into
understanding that they have choice and agency. And that's how
our building is even designed. We designed our new buildings.
You were saying, what's changed. One of the things is
the buildings that were in before. For for for so
many years, we're in small buildings that were not designed
(24:28):
for what we do. It was cramped. We are grateful
for it. I remember being in a basement on North Avenue.
For many people who have been around us for a
long time, they know what it was like over there.
You know, the top bunk, you couldn't set up. You
would the kids, they would hit their head on the ceiling.
I could not stand up there. I had to stoop down.
(24:49):
It's the exact opposite of the kind of environment that
you need when people have experienced trauma. You want them
to have space to know that. But there it was there,
on top of each other. But there was a lot
of there. And that's the place where where Touch and
Wolf would talk about coming and seeing that love. But
now we through the generosity of donors and partners and foundations,
(25:11):
we've been able to now build build a building just
for that, as well as renovate another.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You know, we're facing from a national standpoint less resources
that are going to help solve that trauma. Yes, not
only from the federal government but local government. Yes, And
so we're relying more on missions like yourself. So how
can we help you?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yes, Well, the way that we can help is being,
first of all, being part of that community. When I
talk about and I'm asked, well, what can I do,
the first thing is, let's remember mister Rogers and Pittsburgh
is known for that. How can we be a good neighbor?
That's what you do. You smile, you look at people,
(25:58):
You look them in the eye. Even if somebody is
begging and you're not going to give them food or
not going to give them money, at least acknowledge their humanity.
There's many times I've said a low to someone and
I wasn't going to give them any money, but they
thanked me. Thank you for seeing me. That's what's important
we can do. And then there are ways to volunteer
(26:22):
at light of life. There are opportunities if you want
to come, if a person wants to come and engage
with the community. There's so many things, and it's more
than just a meal. More. Most people think about coming
down on Thanksgiving and helping serve a Thanksgiving meal, and
that's great. We usually end up having too many volunteers
on that day. But there are so many ways that
people can volunteer. In fact, when I go out, I
(26:44):
play this thing called a stump the ED. I say,
no matter what your background is, what your expertise is,
you can tell me and there's a place that we
can plug you in at the mission. So whether it's
in the front office and helping in some way, whether
it's in being a mentor to one of our men
or women, whether it's working with children who are who
(27:04):
are in our daycare program. There's a place for anyone
to come alongside and be part of a solution, part
of helping people understand that they are not alone. And
then of course we're raising funds, and we're raising funds
in order to do the work that we do, and
we rely on the generosity of our donors to help
us to do that. And so we are so grateful
(27:27):
to live in Pittsburgh and to be here and to
be a part of such a robust community that gives back.
Pittsburghs are givers and.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Pittsburgher's take care of Pittsburgh. We say it time and
time again, and it's noticeable. And so I love I
love what we do and I love that we are
able to do it here in Pittsburgh. But those are
some of the ways, and we have community partners as well.
It's not just us. There are other shelters that are
in our area. There are other like operations Safety Net
(27:59):
run by doctor Jim Withers. It's what he did is
something that now is international, but it started here in
Pittsburgh as a Pitts student medical student. He came to
light of life and ask if he could open up
a clinic in our basement back in the nineties. He
did that. Now that has changed and grown to this
(28:20):
whole new there's a whole new discipline in medicine now
called street medicine that started because of him, started here
in Pittsburgh and really in the basement of light of life,
and it's now impacting populations around the world. So Pittsburgh,
we're of a city of first. We have so many
so much innovation here and I believe the thing that
(28:44):
I love also talking about is the fact I believe
that we can build a model in our city for
the nation. I believe it's possible that everyone who's experiencing homelessness,
housing and security in Pittsburgh that within twenty four hours
of them being homeless, that we can have a place
for them to stay. I believe that, and there are
(29:06):
other providers in our area that believe the same thing.
We just got to work towards it. We have to
find ways to communicate where the open beds are.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, how do you find them? Yeah, Like for somebody
who's experience homelessness, how do they get in touch with you?
Or you know, if somebody wants to donate what is
your website?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yes, well, our website is a good place to start.
It's lightoflife dot org. And once you go there, there
are opportunities to give, opportunities to volunteer, but also to
learn about the people that we serve, and so that's
a great place to start. We also have these little
connect cards that we pass out and we go out
(29:45):
when I go to churches or rotary clubs or wherever
I go, I pass these out as well. And so
there's these little cards. They're kind of the size of
two business cards together, and on it it has a
list of our resources, whether it's for food, clothing, our
long term program, short term programs, shelter, mercy shelter, all
(30:06):
of that information is on this card. And this card
says that the person who gave you this card cares
about you, and and so it gives them a message.
And what people will do is they'll take that card
and they'll wrap it around a water bottle or a
granola bar. And when somebody is bagging on a corner,
rather than giving them money, because you don't know what
(30:28):
that money is going for, they'll give them a water
bottle with that card around it, or a granola bar
or something. We always want to connect resources with a
help with a helping hand because later on that person's
going to be in their tent and they may pull
it out and they may make that call. There is
a phone number in our county called the Link, and
(30:53):
the idea there is that a person can call that
number as well and they will also point you in
action of open shelters. The challenge with that is is
not it's not always updated and so it becomes another
barrier sometimes for people uh to understand where the where
(31:13):
the beds are. Not all faith based organizations are included
in the link, and so some of them there are
places for recovery, for example, that aren't necessarily in those
in the link. So that's an area that we can
do better at working in our city of all of
the resources being in one place. We have an outreach
(31:35):
team and that's part of what they do. They go
out and they'll they'll help the person. They'll pull up
the phone, they'll go on the internet. They can help
them get the idea or whatever it is that they
need in order to be successful, and then we help
them make the right next step.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Speaking of you know, outreach, Uh, there are two individuals
that you've known for a long time and we're friends
of mine and they were an amazing advocates of your organization.
That's Ton Joking and Craig Wolfley. Yes, we lost them
both fairly recently. You've been with the mission for a
(32:10):
long long time. Do you remember when they first came in?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yes, well, they when they first came in, it was
before me, but it was early on because I was
there at ninety and they came in while they were
still playing. And were you a Steeler fan? Oh of course, okay,
yes so, but they they started coming. But I met
(32:34):
them very very quickly, because as soon as you have
a meal there, they were known. And the thing about
you know, and I loved about them is watching them.
You know, we're used to seeing them on TV of course,
or being interviewed and all those kinds of things. But
I got to see Tounch and wolf with the people
who are experiencing homelessness, just sitting down with them, talking
(32:58):
to them. The one on one conversations that they were having,
be encouraging them to keep in it, to to do
the next right thing. They would share their number and
there sometimes I always going I don't think you want
to do that. But they were like so much into
wanting to see people succeed. It was it was amazing.
And then as I got to know them even better. Uh.
(33:21):
They were good friends with my brother and I had
a brother that that that died way too soon, and
he was a professional basketball player for a number of years,
Arming gilliam and and he was friends of both of them,
particularly with with Tounch, and so at his passing, we
had all these people come to town and I met
(33:42):
Tounch at that time, and then touch and I became friends.
He said, I'm not he wasn't able to come because
his wife was going through cancer at the time to
the to the memorial service, but he said, let's get
together and we had coffee and from that moment on
we were best friends. And uh, and then he he
just really encouraged me in my in my journey to
(34:05):
eventually becoming the executive director. He and Wolf really supported
that and they were always there at the mission with
a big smile, welcoming people, telling them that if you
come to the mission, you'll never be the same. And
it was a it's a wonderful legacy that they have
We've had a walk for them, which we're thinking about
(34:27):
bringing back again. We have a golf outing that we
just finished and it's sold out three years in a row.
But we had a special memorial of just thinking about
both of them and their legacy for Light of Life.
Craig's wife, Faith was there and she shared some wonderful
(34:49):
stories which of course had us all laughing, but also
what means so much to her, The same thing with
Craig and with Tounch is that the people who are homeless,
who feel hopeless, that's a thing that would get them,
is that there's people out there that are giving up
on life. They're giving up on believing that they could
(35:11):
ever be different. They're thinking, I'm stuck in this lifestyle
and this is the way I'm going to always be
unseen mostly by the world, and rejected by family and
everyone else. And those are the people that they wanted
to get up to and say no, there is hope,
there is the possibility of a new beginning. A pastor
(35:33):
friend of mine likes to say that our history is
not our destiny, and so our history does not define us.
We can make a lot of mistakes in our life,
but now today we can make a choice to write
a new chapter. And that's what we say, Let's start
over again. Let's write a new chapter. Let's begin again.
(35:56):
And now we see the light bulb go on in
the eyes of the people.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
So what is the next chapter for the light of life.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, we continue to want to have an impact on
everybody who's experiencing homelessness in our area, and so what
we want to do is extend our network. We're seeing
a big need in the area of affordable housing and
what I believe a lot of our future is is
not only helping those who are experiencing emergency situations, but
(36:27):
now it's going to be around wrap around services. We're
getting calls from people, from landlords, from people who own buildings,
from developers who are saying, we want to be involved
with helping with those who are coming out of homelessness.
We want to dedicate floors or rooms to people who
are homeless. But we know that they need wrap around services.
(36:48):
For some they need mental health support, for some they
need recovery services, for some they need counseling, and so
we need help in that. And so what we want
to do is expand our service, is to not only
help do the things we're currently doing, but to be
able to have a community presence where I'm seeing our
outreach team being able to go to apartment buildings to
(37:10):
have groups there to help people as they are now
learning to make it again out there in community. How
do we do that together? And so I think that's
part of the cutting edge of what we're going to
be doing in the future. But it continues, unfortunately to
grow those who are experiencing you know, homelessness and addiction,
(37:31):
and so we need to ramp that up as well.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
So if somebody wants to donate or wants to know
more about the mission, what's what's the website? Again?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yes, it's Light of Life Light of Life dot org
and uh and again on that is going to tell
you where you can give, what you can do, how
you can be involved and uh and again. I like
telling people to start off with a tour. Just come down,
Just come down, experience it, Come to one of our events,
(38:03):
experience it, and then from there just see you know
what you're called to do, and it's amazing what happens.
It's one big family and you'll be welcomed when you come.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Reverend girell T Gilliam, the executive director of Light and
Life Rescue Mission. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
This has been the CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy, part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
And welcome in. This is the CEO's You Should Know Podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Hartwell, let's say hello to Reverend
Jirell T. Gilliam, the executive director of Light of Life
Rescue Mission. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, Johnny, it's so good to be with you. Excited
for our time together.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So tell us everything we need to know about the mission.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, Light of Life has been in existence since nineteen
fifty two and we've been serving Pittsburgh and those who
are hungry and need a place since that time. However,
since nineteen fifty two, there's been a big change in
the people who are experiencing homelessness, and over the years
we've had to expand our services. So a lot of
(00:43):
times when people think a lot of life, they usually
think of the holiday meals, which is very big for us.
The media does a great job of covering Thanksgiving and
Christmas and Easter as well, and those are great times
of service. But we're we're three sixty five, seven days
a week, twenty four to seven. We're always open and
(01:05):
we're encouraging people to remember that we're here all year round.
And then as we began to serve those are a need.
We started realizing that while like I go back to
the nineties when I first started working with the mission,
and at that point, when crack cocaine first hit the streets,
(01:28):
it really changed the dynamic of those who were coming.
Before that alcohol was probably the number one drug of choice,
but then it quickly crack cocaine and cocaine began to
grow and we started seeing a younger demographic. Before it
was in the fifties or sixties that we would see
(01:51):
and mostly men. Then we started seeing younger and younger
people get involved, and then we started seeing women with children.
And so currently the fastest two portions of the homeless
community or those experiencing housing and security, is women with
children and.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Those who are older adults.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And so again, when most people think of those experiencing homelessness,
you don't think of this woman that is pushing a
stroller at Point Park at six o'clock at night as
being a person is potentially homeless. But that's the fastest
growing population. And so we knew from that that we
needed to expand what we do, and so we ended
(02:36):
up opening a part of our organization is for women
with children, and then we have one for women who
do not have their children. We have expanded as well
into outreach because we realize, especially as we moved into
the two thousands and the opioid pandemic started happening before
(02:58):
the other pandemic, it really changed the dynamic as well.
Before people were coming from a certain socioeconomic background, but
fentanyl and opioids, it just leveled the playing field. And
so we have people every from rural, suburban, urban, high,
(03:22):
net worth low. It just doesn't matter. It's hit everyone.
And what we noticed was that people were not coming
to us as they had in the past. Before we
could just be there. They would come for a meal,
they would come for a place to stay. But with
this it was different. People were staying out, they were
staying in camps, they were staying on the corners, and
(03:46):
so we realized we had to change our model. So
we started a outreach team and they began going out
to the streets, going to the camps, going to wherever
people were to try to build relatelationship with them, to
invite them to come in, to give them a bottle
water or hygiene kit. But every touch was an opportunity
(04:09):
for a relationship. What we were trying to do is
build trust, and so slowly they would begin to come
in off the street. Maybe it would just be for
meal for some of them would be okay, get a shower, Well,
but will you promise to bring me back? And we
say okay, that's fine, and we would do that and
then they would say okay, I'll come, and then maybe
(04:30):
they'll stay overnight, and slowly a person begins to trust again.
And so now we have what we call a continuum
of care. So it goes the whole gamut from prevention
on one side. You know, we want to help people
not get a victim from their apartments. We want to
help shore. We want to be sure that people are
(04:52):
able to stay where they are. A person should not
have to become homeless in order to get assistance, so
we have rental assistance. We sometimes will be the mediators
between landlords and those who are about to be evicted.
And so we work on that side of it, helping
people with financial help and budgeting and all those things
(05:16):
that help them stay in their apartment, mental health support
all the way through those who need some type of
emergency food or service or a day center place to stay.
They're not in a program, but they just need some
kind of assistance. So we have a food pantry, we
have clothes, a donation center, so all of those things
(05:37):
we've learned from the people who receive from us is
without those resources, they would not be able to stay
in their apartments. The little the things that we're able
to provide, it helps them to make ends meet. And
then there are those. Then we move from that into
those who actually need to come into our programs, and
then we have a wide variety depending on their background
(06:00):
of where they need to what kind of assistance they need.
For some it's just a few weeks or a month
or two to get on their feet, save some money
for a first month's rent and last month's rent, and
they're ready to go. Others they need a lot more support,
mental health support, job training, whatever it is that they need,
(06:22):
and so we come alongside them. So it can go
from just a month all the way up to two years. Wow.
And so it just depends on what the needs are.
And then on the end of that is the alumni
people who graduate. We stay in touch with them and
we want to make sure they continue to be successful.
(06:43):
And one of the big things about our program is
that once you've been helped. Part of being healthy is
helping others, and so they want to give back, and
so that alumni association is very important. It's run by
people who have graduated the program, but they reach out
and share the good news with others and help out
(07:04):
with various programming that goes on. And our graduations are
always a time of celebration where someone goes from a
graduate to be an alumni and they're embraced into this
new community and then from there they lived their life
and it's a wonderful thing. One of the most exciting
things for me, rewarding things, is to be at a
(07:26):
place at a Giant Eagle or somebody or somewhere and
somebody walks up to me and says, you know what,
I was in your program back in nineteen ninety or
twenty twenty one or whatever it was. And here's my kids,
and here's my husband or here's my wife and things
are going well. Now here's my grandkids. I was at
Kennywood one time and person introduced me to a grandkids
(07:46):
and they're having a great time, and it's like, man,
this is wonderful. This is what it's about. Why do
we do what we do is for that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Now, this is a faith based organization. Yes, So tell
me how you came to your faith and how you
think that is going to help the individuals that come
to the mission.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well, I always loved talking about my faith. My faith
came really through my dad. I'm my mom. But my
dad was a pastor for a number of years in
the South Hills of Pittsburgh. And years ago he was
a heavyweight boxer. He was about to go pro was
he was really good, but he was very empty when
(08:26):
he shares about his life back then. And he actually
was impacted by a guy. His name was Reverend Harold Tinker,
who was a former Crawford baseball player. And I just
recently took his picture. He's on home the Homestead, grays Bridge.
His picture is up to Harold Tinker and they called
(08:49):
him Hooks. And my dad watched him. He was in
the Hill district and just a ladies man and a
drinker and all those things. And my dad said it
one day this he made a commitment to Christ and
he changed. His mouth was foul before and his behavior
was just really bad. And my dad would watch him
(09:10):
and he just seemed to be so much at peace,
and at one point my dad asked him, like, what
was the change, and he shared it with him, and
then my dad had a similar experience and he changed,
and my mother as well. So they raised us in
this home and that was really my first exposure to
light of life was with them. They would take us
(09:31):
out to the county jail, to the mission and have
us visit people, and it was just part of our life.
And from a young boy, I wanted to have a
relationship with God like my dad, and I knew the
part of that was God healing me of my brokenness,
(09:52):
but also seeing that help others. But a real turning
point for me, to answer your question, even from at
one point in my life, I became a paramedic and
I went through the Center's program here in Pittsburgh, and
I was running, you know, with several ambulance companies here
(10:13):
in town. And there was this one day I was
up in the Hill District. I was with the City
of Pittsburgh. I was doing a rotation as a paramedic
there and we were in the Hill District. We were
leaving and I had seen this scene a hundred times,
you know, there's the male was being I don't know
if he is a boyfriend or her husband or father,
(10:35):
but he was being taken to the hospital for something.
And I just happened to look up from the ambulance
and I saw the mother and the two small children
kind of clutching the kids and looking at the ambulance,
and this look in her eyes was like she was afraid,
like this was her protector, but there was also uncertainty.
(10:59):
There was so many emotions that were over her at
that particular time, and for some reason, that picture stayed
in my in my mind. When I went back to
the we took him to the emergency room. I went
back to the station and I kept seeing her, and
at that moment I had this epiphany. Really, I think
it was a calling. It was like, you know what,
(11:21):
I could be the best paramedic in the world, but
if I don't do something that gets upstream, this cycle
will never change. And that's when I began to really
I was in my early twenties at that point, and
I was like, I want to do something that's going
to change the trajectory for communities like this, And I
(11:42):
thought of the political arena, I thought of social services arena,
all these different things and eventually what I said was
what I'd realized was real. Change doesn't happen until the
heart changes, and so I wanted to dedicate my life
to heart being changed. And for me, that change happened
(12:05):
through a relationship with God. For people who go through
twelve steps, they'll talk about having this understanding there's a
power that's greater than themselves, and so I agree with
that that there's something that's greater. I did not have
the power to change my life. I would try. I
would try, I try to do will power, do all
(12:27):
the things that I wanted to, but it would fail.
And when I began to believe that there was a
God that loved me, accepted me as I was and would,
but also love me enough not to leave me the
way he found me, that's where I found hope. And
so Light of Life does that on a regular basis.
We provide now a place. The thing that I like
(12:48):
to add, though, is that because we are a faith
based organization, it doesn't mean that we only serve people
of faith. It's actually because of that we serve anyone.
People who have no faith have different faith. What we
feel like the example of Christ is is that he
loved everyone. When you read his stories, he didn't just
go to Jewish people. He didn't go to just people
(13:10):
who believed in him. He would cross the street, he
would go to people who were on the outside, and
he loved them. He loved them just where they were.
And that's that's the example. So for us, the test is,
no matter who you are, what lifestyle choice you pick,
when you walk through our doors, do you feel love,
(13:33):
do you feel acceptance? Do you feel welcomed? That's our
goal and many tell us that that's what they experience
when they come there. So we want to create a
welcoming community for anyone in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
All Right, So you've gave me a lot to ask
you about, and so talking about the mission, when did
you start with? You said in the nineties, that's when
you started, yes, And how did you start?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yes? I started in the nineties, from ninety to ninety four.
I started off as a counselor and a chaplain, and
before that I was a volunteer. And so I would
volunteer at the mission. As I said, I would go
there with my parents in my adult life. I also
would go there to speak in their chapel. So I
was a volunteer. Then I worked. I worked there and
(14:20):
then I left the area for about eight years. I
worked for Promise Keepers on in Denver. I worked for
a recording company, a Christian recording company called Integrity Music
that was a mobile and then I moved back to Pittsburgh.
But wherever I moved, I would be involved with the
missions in that area.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Okay, you're a Pittsburgh guy. Did you have that calling
to come back to Pittsburgh?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, yes, yes. I always felt like this was home
and so I couldn't wait to get back. When the
opportunity came at the end of being a mobile, I
was excited to get back here.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So when did you take over as executive director?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That was about six years ago now, and I've been
this time of working there. I've been there for about
fourteen years. So it's like it's it's changed over the time,
over over time.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
How has it changed? Yeah, well, how has it changed
since you've taken over?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, well, it's changed because of the nature of those
that we serve. It's needed to change.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Okay, let me ask you what is how it's obviously
a need, how big of a need or how how
the you know when it comes to unhoused or homelessness,
or the you know, drug and alcohol, you know problem
that we have in Pittsburgh. How big of a problem
do you see it?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, well it's a it's a it's a huge problem.
It's a growing problem. One of the challenges is not
only here in Allegheny County, but across the country, there
is a there is a method of estimating the number
of homeless in a city called point in time the
PIT survey. And so the philosophy behind that is that,
(16:06):
and this comes from the federal government, is on our
particular day, it's usually in January, but it can be
at any time. But there will be a group of
volunteers and they will go out and they will physically
count every person that's a homeless person, and then that
number becomes the official number that the county uses. So
(16:29):
this PIT survey, the point in time survey, is what
we use to estimate the number of homeless. The challenge
with that, as you could see, as you can imagine,
is that how do you identify someone who's homeless? So
you can go to camps, or you could go to
people who are holding signs. But when I do a
(16:49):
presentation on this. I have a PowerPoint and I have
these four pictures in this PowerPoint. The one is a
college student with a backpack and some friends. Another one
is a woman and a and a with a baby
carriage and a toddler walking in a park. Another is
a business looks like a business person person walking downtown.
(17:10):
And then there's a person holding a sign. And I
say which of these are homeless? And uh? And then
people will go through their their their guesses, and then
I go through each category and each one of them
are that's right? And so I share the statistics around.
You know, the I already said the fastest growing is
(17:33):
women with children. And so when those surveyors are out
and they see a woman with a carriage walking a
baby stroller walking in point park, they wouldn't walk up
to her and say are you homeless? Because they assume
that they that she is housed.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
The college student is a large area. When I when
we moved to our new building, I met with doctor Bullock,
who's uh president of Community College of Allegheny County, and
he was telling me the story of having a student
that he met in an evening one time. And this
(18:12):
student was very bright and doing well in school. And
he came back the next morning and he saw the
same student. But what he noticed was the student had
the same clothes on sack. Yeah, and so he sent
his social worker to meet and talk with that young
man and it turned out that he was homeless. And
(18:33):
so again, the University of Pittsburgh did a survey right
before the pandemic and there were over two thousand students
at the University of Pittsburgh who identified themselves as having
experienced housing and security in the last year. And so
some of them weren't living on the streets, but they
(18:53):
didn't have a permanent safe place to stay. They're bouncing
from couch to couch or going, you know, from one
place to another. The Pittsburgh Public Schools does a survey
and again there's over I think it's three thousand now
Pittsburgh Public school students have been identified as again they're
(19:14):
homeless as far as they don't have a permanent address
to stay. They may not be on the street, but
they're bounced around. So this number, the actual number is huge.
I serve on the board of organization called Citygate, and
Citygate has over three hundred and twenty rescue missions in
the United States and Canada. What they've discovered in others
(19:37):
as well is that the actual number is as low
as three times but as high as ten times the
point in time survey for each city, depending on which
city that they're in, and so that is a challenge.
It is a big number. Right now, we're hovering I
didn't look recently, but we're probably hovering around twelve hundred
(19:59):
in our on our county assessment of the number. And
so even if you took the lowest, and that means
the actual number is probably more like three thousand that
are that are that are adults that are homeless on
the streets, but they're not always visible, and so they're
hiding and playing sight and so that problem that's that's growing.
(20:22):
And then we have this whole problem with affordable housing.
So you have people who are now entering in the
homeless homelessness not because of addiction or even a job,
they just can't afford it.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
You know, I would I think we'd be naive and
not recognize that homelessness is a problem from a national standpoint,
and here in Pittsburgh locally, but you're on the front lines,
you probably see things that that bureaucrats don't what do
you see that they don't.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well. One of the things that I when I have
a chance to talk to legislators and things like that,
is one is I try to help them to understand
that for the person who's experiencing chronic homelessness, they are
experiencing trauma. There was a study this adverse childhood events
to study on what are the impacts on adults when
(21:14):
they've had traumatic incidents as a child. And what they
found was that for adults who have had traumatic incidents,
they have much more likely problems with mental health, with stability,
with health, with physical health, so many things, so many
(21:34):
negative health outcomes were tied to the fact that they
had trauma. In the United States, the average adult of
all the populations, sixty percent have experienced one adverse childhood
event by the time they reached their adulthood. For those
who experiencing for those who experience homelessness, ninety percent have
(21:57):
experienced three or more adverse childhood events. So just imagine
you have this child who had some kind of adverse event.
It could be a divorce, it could be a murder
of somebody, it could be some kind of a rape
or something that they've seen, whatever it is, it's been
in their life, and they're now a child, and now
(22:18):
they experience another one, and then they experience another one.
Now they're trying to make sense of the world. And
so often if they don't have healthy adults around them
to help them navigate it, the world is going to
offer them something to numb it. And that's how many
of them end up going down this path of chasing
a way to self medicate. And so we have to
(22:40):
understand that trauma is a major factor. And then when
they're experiencing an event currently of homelessness, that's another layer
of homelessness, another layer of trauma they're experiencing. And so
I want them to understand that people are experiencing homelessness
or the same as me, you, as our brother, as
(23:01):
our sister. But for many of them, they just have
trauma after trauma after trauma. What they need most is community.
I say, often the opposite of addiction is not sobriety,
but community when we want to see people healed. When
they did that study, what they learned in that study
(23:21):
was that once a person has experienced so many levels
of trauma, their brain begins to rewire and they begin
to do less thinking in the frontal cortex where all
the decision making is, and it's more in the amygdala.
It's in the fight or flight. So that's why you'll
see people who might be on edge very easily because
(23:44):
they're just thinking of the basic needs. How do I
get high? Because I want to numb myself? What do
I need to eat? What I need to do to
do that, and their brains are like in this cycle.
The way that you break out of that cycle, they
learned is through community. If you get someone in a
safe environment where they're loved and support it, they begin
(24:05):
to get out of that fight or flight response into
understanding that they have choice and agency. And that's how
our building is even designed. We designed our new buildings.
You were saying, what's changed. One of the things is
the buildings that were in before. For for for so
many years, we're in small buildings that were not designed
(24:28):
for what we do. It was cramped. We are grateful
for it. I remember being in a basement on North Avenue.
For many people who have been around us for a
long time, they know what it was like over there.
You know, the top bunk, you couldn't set up. You
would the kids, they would hit their head on the ceiling.
I could not stand up there. I had to stoop down.
(24:49):
It's the exact opposite of the kind of environment that
you need when people have experienced trauma. You want them
to have space to know that. But there it was there,
on top of each other. But there was a lot
of there. And that's the place where where Touch and
Wolf would talk about coming and seeing that love. But
now we through the generosity of donors and partners and foundations,
(25:11):
we've been able to now build build a building just
for that, as well as renovate another.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You know, we're facing from a national standpoint less resources
that are going to help solve that trauma. Yes, not
only from the federal government but local government. Yes, And
so we're relying more on missions like yourself. So how
can we help you?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yes, Well, the way that we can help is being,
first of all, being part of that community. When I
talk about and I'm asked, well, what can I do,
the first thing is, let's remember mister Rogers and Pittsburgh
is known for that. How can we be a good neighbor?
That's what you do. You smile, you look at people,
(25:58):
You look them in the eye. Even if somebody is
begging and you're not going to give them food or
not going to give them money, at least acknowledge their humanity.
There's many times I've said a low to someone and
I wasn't going to give them any money, but they
thanked me. Thank you for seeing me. That's what's important
we can do. And then there are ways to volunteer
(26:22):
at light of life. There are opportunities if you want
to come, if a person wants to come and engage
with the community. There's so many things, and it's more
than just a meal. More. Most people think about coming
down on Thanksgiving and helping serve a Thanksgiving meal, and
that's great. We usually end up having too many volunteers
on that day. But there are so many ways that
people can volunteer. In fact, when I go out, I
(26:44):
play this thing called a stump the ED. I say,
no matter what your background is, what your expertise is,
you can tell me and there's a place that we
can plug you in at the mission. So whether it's
in the front office and helping in some way, whether
it's in being a mentor to one of our men
or women, whether it's working with children who are who
(27:04):
are in our daycare program. There's a place for anyone
to come alongside and be part of a solution, part
of helping people understand that they are not alone. And
then of course we're raising funds, and we're raising funds
in order to do the work that we do, and
we rely on the generosity of our donors to help
us to do that. And so we are so grateful
(27:27):
to live in Pittsburgh and to be here and to
be a part of such a robust community that gives back.
Pittsburghs are givers and.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Pittsburgher's take care of Pittsburgh. We say it time and
time again, and it's noticeable. And so I love I
love what we do and I love that we are
able to do it here in Pittsburgh. But those are
some of the ways, and we have community partners as well.
It's not just us. There are other shelters that are
in our area. There are other like operations Safety Net
(27:59):
run by doctor Jim Withers. It's what he did is
something that now is international, but it started here in
Pittsburgh as a Pitts student medical student. He came to
light of life and ask if he could open up
a clinic in our basement back in the nineties. He
did that. Now that has changed and grown to this
(28:20):
whole new there's a whole new discipline in medicine now
called street medicine that started because of him, started here
in Pittsburgh and really in the basement of light of life,
and it's now impacting populations around the world. So Pittsburgh,
we're of a city of first. We have so many
so much innovation here and I believe the thing that
(28:44):
I love also talking about is the fact I believe
that we can build a model in our city for
the nation. I believe it's possible that everyone who's experiencing homelessness,
housing and security in Pittsburgh that within twenty four hours
of them being homeless, that we can have a place
for them to stay. I believe that, and there are
(29:06):
other providers in our area that believe the same thing.
We just got to work towards it. We have to
find ways to communicate where the open beds are.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, how do you find them? Yeah, Like for somebody
who's experience homelessness, how do they get in touch with you?
Or you know, if somebody wants to donate what is
your website?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yes, well, our website is a good place to start.
It's lightoflife dot org. And once you go there, there
are opportunities to give, opportunities to volunteer, but also to
learn about the people that we serve, and so that's
a great place to start. We also have these little
connect cards that we pass out and we go out
(29:45):
when I go to churches or rotary clubs or wherever
I go, I pass these out as well. And so
there's these little cards. They're kind of the size of
two business cards together, and on it it has a
list of our resources, whether it's for food, clothing, our
long term program, short term programs, shelter, mercy shelter, all
(30:06):
of that information is on this card. And this card
says that the person who gave you this card cares
about you, and and so it gives them a message.
And what people will do is they'll take that card
and they'll wrap it around a water bottle or a
granola bar. And when somebody is bagging on a corner,
rather than giving them money, because you don't know what
(30:28):
that money is going for, they'll give them a water
bottle with that card around it, or a granola bar
or something. We always want to connect resources with a
help with a helping hand because later on that person's
going to be in their tent and they may pull
it out and they may make that call. There is
a phone number in our county called the Link, and
(30:53):
the idea there is that a person can call that
number as well and they will also point you in
action of open shelters. The challenge with that is is
not it's not always updated and so it becomes another
barrier sometimes for people uh to understand where the where
(31:13):
the beds are. Not all faith based organizations are included
in the link, and so some of them there are
places for recovery, for example, that aren't necessarily in those
in the link. So that's an area that we can
do better at working in our city of all of
the resources being in one place. We have an outreach
(31:35):
team and that's part of what they do. They go
out and they'll they'll help the person. They'll pull up
the phone, they'll go on the internet. They can help
them get the idea or whatever it is that they
need in order to be successful, and then we help
them make the right next step.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Speaking of you know, outreach, Uh, there are two individuals
that you've known for a long time and we're friends
of mine and they were an amazing advocates of your organization.
That's Ton Joking and Craig Wolfley. Yes, we lost them
both fairly recently. You've been with the mission for a
(32:10):
long long time. Do you remember when they first came in?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yes, well, they when they first came in, it was
before me, but it was early on because I was
there at ninety and they came in while they were
still playing. And were you a Steeler fan? Oh of course, okay,
yes so, but they they started coming. But I met
(32:34):
them very very quickly, because as soon as you have
a meal there, they were known. And the thing about
you know, and I loved about them is watching them.
You know, we're used to seeing them on TV of course,
or being interviewed and all those kinds of things. But
I got to see Tounch and wolf with the people
who are experiencing homelessness, just sitting down with them, talking
(32:58):
to them. The one on one conversations that they were having,
be encouraging them to keep in it, to to do
the next right thing. They would share their number and
there sometimes I always going I don't think you want
to do that. But they were like so much into
wanting to see people succeed. It was it was amazing.
And then as I got to know them even better. Uh.
(33:21):
They were good friends with my brother and I had
a brother that that that died way too soon, and
he was a professional basketball player for a number of years,
Arming gilliam and and he was friends of both of them,
particularly with with Tounch, and so at his passing, we
had all these people come to town and I met
(33:42):
Tounch at that time, and then touch and I became friends.
He said, I'm not he wasn't able to come because
his wife was going through cancer at the time to
the to the memorial service, but he said, let's get
together and we had coffee and from that moment on
we were best friends. And uh, and then he he
just really encouraged me in my in my journey to
(34:05):
eventually becoming the executive director. He and Wolf really supported
that and they were always there at the mission with
a big smile, welcoming people, telling them that if you
come to the mission, you'll never be the same. And
it was a it's a wonderful legacy that they have
We've had a walk for them, which we're thinking about
(34:27):
bringing back again. We have a golf outing that we
just finished and it's sold out three years in a row.
But we had a special memorial of just thinking about
both of them and their legacy for Light of Life.
Craig's wife, Faith was there and she shared some wonderful
(34:49):
stories which of course had us all laughing, but also
what means so much to her, The same thing with
Craig and with Tounch is that the people who are homeless,
who feel hopeless, that's a thing that would get them,
is that there's people out there that are giving up
on life. They're giving up on believing that they could
(35:11):
ever be different. They're thinking, I'm stuck in this lifestyle
and this is the way I'm going to always be
unseen mostly by the world, and rejected by family and
everyone else. And those are the people that they wanted
to get up to and say no, there is hope,
there is the possibility of a new beginning. A pastor
(35:33):
friend of mine likes to say that our history is
not our destiny, and so our history does not define us.
We can make a lot of mistakes in our life,
but now today we can make a choice to write
a new chapter. And that's what we say, Let's start
over again. Let's write a new chapter. Let's begin again.
(35:56):
And now we see the light bulb go on in
the eyes of the people.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
So what is the next chapter for the light of life.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Well, we continue to want to have an impact on
everybody who's experiencing homelessness in our area, and so what
we want to do is extend our network. We're seeing
a big need in the area of affordable housing and
what I believe a lot of our future is is
not only helping those who are experiencing emergency situations, but
(36:27):
now it's going to be around wrap around services. We're
getting calls from people, from landlords, from people who own buildings,
from developers who are saying, we want to be involved
with helping with those who are coming out of homelessness.
We want to dedicate floors or rooms to people who
are homeless. But we know that they need wrap around services.
(36:48):
For some they need mental health support, for some they
need recovery services, for some they need counseling, and so
we need help in that. And so what we want
to do is expand our service, is to not only
help do the things we're currently doing, but to be
able to have a community presence where I'm seeing our
outreach team being able to go to apartment buildings to
(37:10):
have groups there to help people as they are now
learning to make it again out there in community. How
do we do that together? And so I think that's
part of the cutting edge of what we're going to
be doing in the future. But it continues, unfortunately to
grow those who are experiencing you know, homelessness and addiction,
(37:31):
and so we need to ramp that up as well.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
So if somebody wants to donate or wants to know
more about the mission, what's what's the website? Again?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yes, it's Light of Life Light of Life dot org
and uh and again on that is going to tell
you where you can give, what you can do, how
you can be involved and uh and again. I like
telling people to start off with a tour. Just come down,
Just come down, experience it, Come to one of our events,
(38:03):
experience it, and then from there just see you know
what you're called to do, and it's amazing what happens.
It's one big family and you'll be welcomed when you come.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Reverend girell T Gilliam, the executive director of Light and
Life Rescue Mission. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
This has been the CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy, part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
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