Compassion Calls: How Miracle Messages Supports Their Volunteers
Author, Veronica Garrick | 4/11/2022
“We’re all in this together, we’re all facing the same thing, we’re all facing the same uncertainties.”
Miracle Friends is a program that matches caring volunteers with an unhoused friend for weekly calls, texts, and check-ins, to foster companionship because no one deserves to experience homelessness alone. With over 150 connections, that’s well over 150 conversations, lives and stories shared between individuals and friends. Our unhoused neighbors are full of life, spirit, laughter, love and kindness. However, there are days when our heart aches for our friends and their experiences. At Miracle Messages we reunite friends, families, offer resources and friendship to create positive change in individual’s lives. Through this process, we hear the heart wrenching stories as much as the heartwarming. We offer a benevolent ear to listen, but sometimes there’s a shadow of doubt that our compassion might not be enough. In times like this, what do we do?
“The compassion call is a great proactive way of communicating emotions and feelings before hitting the point of “I don’t know what to do anymore.” It’s a place to know that you have support and we’re all going through the same thing.”
Once a month, our Director of Operations, Madeline, hosts a Compassion Call for our Miracle Friends’ volunteers as a safe space to share openly and honestly. Madeline started these calls because the work we do can be shocking, overwhelming and challenging at times. We’re all human, we’re not immune to emotions, reluctance, exhaustion or confusion. These calls are a place to relieve those anxieties without judgment and with open arms, because all of our volunteers have experienced this at one time or another.
“As part of our support for our volunteers, staff, and others, we open this up because we’re dealing with a lot of stuff here, we’re dealing with heart wrenching stories. With as many good stories as we have, we have heart wrenching stories and it can be taxing. To be able to have a space where we can have this communication is important.”
Miracle Friends is committed to supporting our unhoused friends, and we are equally dedicated to maintaining a direct line of communication and strength within our volunteers. It can be hard to remain positive in situations when our unhoused friends are dealing with isolation, addiction, hunger, grief and day-to-day ambiguity. As volunteers, we might not always know the right thing to say or do. Compassion calls remind our volunteers that they are not alone and that it’s okay to not always have the answers. Ensuring that our community feels support allows our volunteers to continue the work they do.
“As a volunteer, an hour and a half ago, I thought Madeline and Bill knew how to handle every single situation. [Now], I can give myself permission to not know the answer to every single situation”
Our role is to remind our unhoused friends that they are loved and empowered, but so is every single volunteer who dedicates every week to our program and mission.
Want to join us and be a friend? Learn more and sign up here