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PUBLIC RELATIONS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               

June, 2001                                                                           

 

 

HOMELESS SHELTER STUGGLES TO KEEP DOORS OPEN-

 

LOCAL PAPER GENERATES COMMUNITY INTEREST THAT MAY SAVE THE DAY

INCITING LOCAL CHURCH TO INVITE HOMELESS TO FATHER’S DAY SERVICE

 

 

            When Claudia Woods came up with the idea for her California Dream Home Essay Contest, she was a desperate woman. Though dwelling in a two-bedroom apartment with a family of her own, she thought if she offered her Lancaster house up as the prize, the entries for her essay contest would pour in. 

            “We’ve generated interest in the website, californiadreamhomecontest.com, but no entries or entry fees to date, “ she laments. The contest, which offers a “dream home” to the winner of an essay contest extolling how one would “change the world” is a valiant effort to keep the doors of her two homeless shelters open.  Based in Compton and Lancaster, the shelters offer housing to a multicultural mix of prison parolees.  Due to a severe lack of city funding, the Compton based home is now in foreclosure.

            However, it was a story penned by writer Shirley Hawkins for the WAVE  Newspapers, that offered Woods her first real ray of hope.  That story, which ran May 30, 2001, has ignited  community interest that is unparalleled. Since its publication,
Woods’ phone has not ceased to ring.  The calls range from community residents who share stories of loved ones incarcerated and released to an uncaring world, to senior citizens who want to make a financial contribution, no matter how small.    In fact, 2nd AME Church has offered to officially adopt the Compton house, while Randolph Construction has offered several of the men day work. 

            “The response has been most overwhelming,” responds Woods. “One woman came down to the Compton home and was so moved by what she saw, she wrote a personal check for $500.00.  The effect on the men has been an important side effect as well.  Their sense of esteem and self worth has been greatly elevated.”

            Woods hopes that the community support continues to swell. As the executive director of Changing Your World, a non-profit agency she started two years ago to address the needs of parolees, Woods was homeless herself once.  Every year, 500,000 men and women are released from prison with little more than the clothes on their backs.  Two thirds of the men and women will find themselves back in jail within three years.  Changing Your World exists to stop this horrible statistic. 

            For more information on Changing Your World, call (310) 838-4690, or hit the web at californiadreamhomecontest.com.

 

Note to Media:  The parolees from the Changing Your World Compton based shelter will attend church on Father’s Day as the special guest of 2nd AME Church.