Community Effort Secures Transportation for
Homeless in Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC, February 4, 2009: On Friday, February 6, 2009 ten bicycles, helmets, locks and bike lights will be donated to the Inter-Faith Council (IFC) men's homeless shelter in Chapel Hill. These items were donated as a result of a community-wide effort to provide safe and reliable transportation for homeless men living at the Community House shelter in Downtown Chapel Hill. The bicycles will be available to the men to get to and from work, to do job searches, to attend classes, as well as do daily errands.
This resulted from the work of the Employment Initiatives Work Group; a committee of the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness.
Members from the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, ReCYCLEry, Performance Bicycles, and Inter-Faith Council will be at the event on Friday when the equipment is all installed.
Meg McGurk, Assistant Director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, has served as the facilitator of the Employment Initiatives Work Group since August. McGurk heard from a member of the work group, who expressed a need for reliable transportation for men living at the homeless shelter who work the third shift; when buses are not running.
McGurk turned to the nonprofit and business community to help. McGurk contacted the ReCYCLEry to possibly donate two or three bikes. The ReCYCLEry is a nonprofit that salvages bikes through community skill building and volunteerism and promotes bicycle transportation. The ReCYCLEry, quickly answered with ten donated bikes!
Soon, Performance Bicycle, with a mission that includes giving back to the community, responded by donating all of the biking accessories, two bicycle racks and two additional new bikes to the effort.
Now all of IFC's locations (Men's Shelter, Women's & Children's Shelter and Administrative Offices) have bike racks available for their clients and staff.
This grassroots community effort has been a great show of what our community can accomplish to fill a need. It is a testament to how seemingly small steps in efforts to address homelessness can actually make great strides.
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Photo Opportunity:
Friday, February 6, 2009
2:00 pm
Interfaith Council Community House - 100 West Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill
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Center of Education and Life-Long Learning; the Center of Arts, Culture, and Entertainment; and the Center of Urban Living. 