Every week the Phoenix Dream Center goes into impoverished and low-income communities providing hunger relief and nutrition assistance.
This year was especially hard due to COVID-19 hindering our ability to serve closely, so we had to adjust our outreaches.
During these outreaches, we met Derek who was an elderly veteran that has struggled with homelessness on and off. He was also struggling with addiction due to his severe PTSD from serving in Iraq and then Afghanistan.
Derek showed up with his service dog and let us know that he could not really be outside let alone in the park if it was not for his dog.
Derek mentioned that he would like to get help with his addiction to heal from his PTSD. When we told Derek about the Phoenix Dream Center, he asked us if there were any church services he could start going to.
The issue holding him back from attending church was that he was still engaging in substance abuse and felt it was not right to attend.
We assured him there was no judgment and gave him information on services he could attend.
The conversation evolved into how he could help others that are homeless in the park, whether that was routing other homeless individuals to supportive services or reporting active cases of human trafficking.
On this outreach, Derek realized that he was not alone in his struggles and he also left with a full belly and extra food to keep along with some warm clothes.
To volunteer or support outreaches like these visit our main page at www.phoenixdreamcenter.org to get connected. Also, make sure to follow us on social media today!