Recognizing our Community’s Heroes
On May 8th members and supporters of the Boise/Ada County Homeless Coalition gathered to celebrate our collective progress and achievements over the last 18 months and to recognize four groups and individuals who have contributed greatly to the work of preventing and ending homelessness in Boise and Ada County.
Click HERE to view photos of the event.
We would like to thank our gracious host, Boise First United Church of Christ, as well as the Boise Co-op for beverages and Edwards Floral for table centerpieces.
The following honorees were recognized at the event:
Community Initiative Award: Abby Keith & Molly Montgomery – Idaho Homelessness Impact organization
Abby Keith and Molly Montgomery’s vision, generosity, and energy are models for all of us. And for anyone who thinks they don’t have time in their busy schedules to add volunteer activity, Abby and Molly have proven them wrong!
Abby and Molly recognized the needs in our unhoused population for the kind of basic services (and care) that most of us take for granted in our daily lives. They researched the community needs and recruited an ongoing group of service providers and volunteers who share their vision and compassion. They created a non-profit structure, and with a group of students (and a few older adults) host regular events to provide help with job search, haircuts, bus passes, hygiene products, and informational resources for meals, legal aid, and several other necessary services.
Community Advocate Award: Gerri Graves & Karen Folk
Both Gerri and Karen have been tireless and open advocates in our community outreach panels and discussions. They are selfless, courageous, and authentic in their campaigns to change the narratives around homelessness and those who are unhoused.
Gerri Graves— community service volunteer, artist, writer, mother, and resident of Interfaith Sanctuary who walked away from her home in Hyde Park after a divorce and medical event. She has been an outspoken advocate for her community since high school and wants to change the overly simplified narrative of what it means to be homeless.
Karen Folk— a writer, artist, mother, grandmother, college graduate, 79-year-old former resident of Interfaith Sanctuary was recently housed in a sunny Boise studio apartment. She is also a community advocate who shares a difficult path to housing, and is an focused on bringing the story of unhoused seniors and new senior housing alternatives.
Leadership Award: City of Boise
Mayor, City Council, and Staff—Mayor McLean, Council members Colin Nash and Meredith Stead, former Council member Latonia Haney Keith, and Nicki Olivier Hellenkamp were there to accept the award.
They were recognized for their:
- visionary leadership in defining a City for Everyone – what it looks like, and how that inclusiveness helps our community and every one of us thrive.
- steadfast courage in implementing/executing strategies that align with and ensure that vision—a zoning code that allows for more housing and more types of housing; an affordable housing plan that begins the monumental task of creating housing for low and very low-income families, as well as “workforce” housing; operating rules to make the landlord: tenant relationship more transparent and successful, while creating siderails for a few opportunistic landlords.
- willingness to be a role model in prioritizing future generations, as well as our community’s current needs.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Henry Krewer
Henry Krewer was one of the founding members of Corpus Christi House – the only daytime shelter in Boise. Corpus Christi House was created in 2002 after a group of homeless advocates had the vision to open a daytime shelter to help restore the dignity of Boise folks facing life without a home. Henry has led Corpus Christi for over twenty years and has served with numerous non-profit organizations in their support for the unsheltered. Henry began his life as an advocate for the low income after he retired from Bishop Kelly High School as a physics teacher in 1996. Henry served at the Ecumenical Soup Kitchen, El Ada Day Labor Center, and Community House breakfasts before Corpus Christi was founded. Henry is going strong at 91 and still can be seen talking with the folks visiting Corpus Christi and providing words of wisdom and compassion.
Click HERE to watch a video of Henry’s acceptance speech.
Celebration Wall
Attendees also shared their achievements, wishes, dreams, hopes and memories on a Celebration Wall. Here are a few examples of their posts:
- Wishes: For people of all disabilities to not fall between the cracks, no matter the disability.
- Dignity & Respect
- Boise adopting a modern zoning code gives me hope that more housing is coming.
- Showing in action what faith and unconditional love look like
- Human beings don’t need to be identical to be equal. They just need to be human beings.
- To see young people involved in improving our world gives me hope.
- Gratitude and appreciation to our dedicated service providers
- A Home for Everyone!
It was such a wonderful pause for reflection on the difficult work done every day and the progress we sometimes fail to note. Thank you to everyone who attended and celebrated with us!