Awakening Hope

Eric Howard is a rare breed of man. He is the kind of a guy, singular of mission and focus, who manages to produce results in areas were many would fail to find faith. Through the local not-for-profit he leads, Outreach (www.outreachindiana.org) which carries the tagline hope for homeless youth , he and his crew have managed, in a landscape more challenged by difficult economic realities and pervasive collapse of the family unit, to deliver more than hope.

As one might expect, there are horrific consequences for teenagers who find themselves by circumstance or design to be on the street and without home or family. The things that many of these kids do to survive – literally to stay alive – are not fit to print in a family newspaper. Yet Outreach takes a pragmatic approach to the lot. In a self-published book, Awakening: Stories of Hope, the organization tells the tales of young people who, in spite of all odds strive to pull themselves from despair. Unlike the split second sound bites and apocryphal accounts of MTV, this all-too-real world is filled with failure as much as it is triumph.



I learned of Anthony, struggling to complete an education. And there is Brandon who met his father (and learned of his 10 siblings) in one day only to be abandoned by him again the next. Alana is resisting cultural pressure that she have babies young and out of wedlock. Lamar moved to the street while finishing high school so that his single mother’s limited resources could better be divided upon his junior siblings. There are many among us who rely upon the kindness of strangers and are vulnerable to the exploitation of the wicked. For those able to follow, Outreach lights a path to a different and better kind of life.

This column was published on Tuesday, July 26, 2011in the Current in Carmel, Current in Westfield, Current in Fishers , and Current in Noblesville - http: //youarecurrent.com/

Photo taken from http://www.chasingdream.org