A partnership between Free Chapel church and the LA Dream Center is opening a transitional home for youths between 18 and 23 who are coming from the foster care system.
The residence, called Freedom House, will also help young adults who are dealing with the probation system.
“More than a transitional home, we are believing Freedom House will be a place where students come to know the love of Jesus Christ, that He is our only hope and our Savior,” Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel told The Christian Post. “…We are just so privileged to be a part of the dream … we can provide resources but we can’t do the other things that they do so well, the programs the facility.”
Pastor Matthew Barnett of the Dream Center told the Christian Post “the hope of America is in dynamic partnership of churches working together.”
Statistics show that up to 50 percent of foster kids end up homeless or in jail after they reach 18 and are forced out of the foster care system. Barnett says they hope the Freedom House will help individuals make “positive lifestyle choices” that promote physical and mental well-being.
It’s hard to imagine that at 74 years of age, there is still a dream that lives as vibrantly in my heart today as it did when I was very young. But the dream does live – and it lives by the strength and the inspiration of God because He is the One who put it there!
The vision hasn’t changed to build a retreat center… to build a place for God’s people that is like a City of Refuge. I have people who say, “Why are you doing this? Why are you doing the same thing again?” The answer is very simple: I only have one string on my fiddle. I mean I’m a one-string fiddle and I don’t have another one. I’m doing what is in me and for the first time I understand it. I can’t change it because it was established in me by God! Continue reading →
The Los Angeles Dream Center is mobilizing opposition to a potential ban on feeding Los Angeles’ homeless residents.
L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge introduced a motion that would prohibit all organizations, including religious ones, from providing outdoor food services to the needy. LaBonge said such activities “get in the public’s right of way” and they can have “negative impacts to the surrounding community.”
The Dream Center and supporters have started a petition drive to show that the public does not support the restrictions on feeding those in need.
“If feeding were to be banned or restricted, it would cut off our lifeline to not only feed the homeless but families,” Pastor Matthew Barnett told The Christian Post. “Tens of thousands of people would be impacted. Mobile trucks are the only way to reach people. We’ve been doing this for nearly twenty years. Mobile outreach meets people in their world and that’s where the impacts are made.”
The National Coalition for the Homeless, based in Washington, D.C., said they will be mobilizing to help the L.A. effort.
“It’s mean-spirited to deny hungry people food and wrong for the city council to ban charitable acts,” Jerry Jones of Coalition said. “If volunteers want to feed homeless people, the city shouldn’t be throwing up roadblocks, they should be thanking them.”