ADA, the group of western communities teens comprising Alex Ng, Devin Wallace and Andre Ferreira, ran a hygiene drive last month for Café Joshua, the Lord’s Place shelter on Australian Avenue.
The Lord’s Place is a nonprofit agency dedicated to breaking the cycle of homelessness by providing innovative, compassionate and effective services to men, women and children. It has two housing campuses (one for individual men and one for families), where it provides transitional and permanent supportive housing.
In addition, the Lord’s Place recently purchased a new home where it will be providing housing for single women — the first of its kind in Palm Beach County. It also has an extensive job training and placement program that provides clients with training on all of the hard and soft skills for employment.
The Lord’s Place also has five apprenticeships in which clients are able to participate — clerical, culinary, maintenance, peer advocacy and retail. Finally, the Lord’s Place serves as a navigation site and provide initial screenings of individuals and families to refer them to the new Lewis Homeless Resource Center.
Because most clients of the Lord’s Place arrive there with the bare necessities, it has pantries at each of its facilities so they can have assistance with basic needs such as soap, shampoo, tooth brushes, toothpaste and any other personal-care items.
“When the boys held their drive for personal-care items and delivered them to us, I was overwhelmed by the donations we received,” Jan Phillips of the Lord’s Place said. “The donations will provide many, many clients with the items most of us take for granted. Thank you so very much for all you have done for our clients!”
With the help of family, friends and the staff at the DoubleTree by Hilton West Palm Beach Airport, ADA was able to collect more than 2,000 hygiene items.
“It’s always nice to see everyone bonding together as part of one community, especially students, to give back to those that are less fortunate,” Hilton sales coordinator Jessica Uremovic said. “I, as well as my fellow staff, are always more than willing to lend a helping hand. Times have proven not to be the easiest these past few years. I am grateful that we can share with others to make something not so easy become just a little bit easier. As Paul Shane Spear has said, ‘As one person I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person.’”
“There are so many luxuries that all of us take for granted each day,” said Kristina Violal, director of sales. “I enjoy seeing people so young helping out those who cannot enjoy the same things we can. I applaud these boys for choosing to take the time and to make the effort in giving back to the community. Little by little, we can make a difference in the world. I am so incredibly happy that we could be part of something that is so special.”
Above: Andre Ferreira, Devin Wallace, Jan Phillips of the Lord’s Place and Alex Ng.
