The Streets of Gold Leadership Program
Rev. Dorothy Wellington began the Once-A-Month Church community outreach to the poor and homeless at the Burton Barr Library and the Margaret T. Hance Park in October 2006. “They were a people who had lost everything, but, yet, I watched them help each other and those who were new to the streets.  Why not use the companionship they had for one another to help expand their efforts.”  In June 2010, she implemented the Streets of Gold Leadership Program to increase the participants’ self-esteem, dignity and community involvement.  They become Good News Leaders for their communities, an innovative way where “the homeless are reaching the homeless.”
The poor and homeless have been residents in our city who felt worthless and degraded.  The Streets of Gold Leadership Program gives them a purpose and highlights their achievements each month during the workshops.  We value them as Good News Leaders as they receive up-to-date community resources and encouragement which they share on the street.  The workshops are held at local restaurants away from nearby areas of poverty, shame and even deaths of some of their peers.  At the workshops they feel as though they are a part of the city along with all of its other citizens.  Since the first workshop in 2010, the program has now reached 809 participants.  Registration is received from the men and women who attend the monthly park meetings of the Once-A-Month Church.  This is an amazing result for a program where many of the men and women suffer from mental illness and/or substance abuse, chronic homelessness, and sickness.  The program continues from the financial donations and support of others.  Learn more from www.dorothywellingtonministries.com  or call 602-593-5903.