Thanksgiving came a little early for Johnettia and her four boys yesterday as they walked into their new home for the first time. Learn more about their story — and families like theirs — in SAY Detroit’s Working Homes / Working Families program (WHWF), below.
“Sanctuary. Home. Comfort. Security. Peace.”
If you are blessed, you will feel that warmth in the embrace of friends and family as you gather to give thanks this week.
But those words are also how Michelle and Clyde Moore once described their living situation only after becoming WHWF recipients. After losing their apartment due to health setbacks and job loss, the couple and their three children alternated between sleeping in their car and a motel room. All they needed, they said, was “one chance” to help get back on their feet. [Watch their story from 2020 here.]
WHWF provides that opportunity by matching empty houses with working families in need of homes. We work with partners to refurbish and furnish houses, and more partners to rebuild neighborhood parks and green spaces. You can help offset repair costs with a donation right now.
This year, two families from the SAY Detroit Play Center received homes as WHWF increases its strategic investment in the Osborn neighborhood that surrounds the premier learning center. As SAY Play’s Executive Director Eric Reed explains, it’s about “making sure they have a stable and consistent environment away from the center.”
SAY Detroit helps communities thrive by supporting families through housing, health care and education.
You’ll meet both 2024 families *live* during the Radiothon on December 12, but here’s an early introduction for supporters like you.
The Jacksons, pictured above, were living in just the first floor of the home after the second floor was ravaged by fire. At five years old, Johnettia’s (48) youngest son Jahshuea is too young to join SAY Play, but older boys Johnethian (18), Jeremiyah (16), and Jackeob (11) are current or graduated members — and “legends” you’ll hear more about next week.
Single mom and medical assistant Kai Green (32), and her three children found stability (pictured above). They’d been living with Kai’s mother since January after their previous rental fell into disrepair and foreclosure. The new home in Osborn meant her children would not have to change schools, and they would be able to continue receiving academic assistance, enrichment programming and other services like daily meals and wellness support at SAY Play.
“I feel encouraged. I feel empowered. I feel loved. I feel like God has my back,” she exclaimed on moving day in May.
A fire, a workplace injury, a rental scam, job loss, a car accident — these are all real issues WHWF program recipients have recently faced. In the balance of bad luck, a health problem, a poor decision, or trust broken, lives are changed.
They can be changed again, for the better.
Help build sanctuary, home, comfort, security, and peace for more families in need in Detroit now with an early gift to the 2024 Radiothon.
» Get ready for the 2024 Radiothon
- Look out for a big announcement next week about a way to support the radiothon in a big way!
- Preview some auction and incentive items at mitchalbomradiothon.com
- Add the event to your calendar:
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» Help SAY Play win $10,000!
All it takes is a click! You can help students from the SAY Detroit Play Center win $10,000 by casting your vote for their decorated tree in a contest hosted by Gardner White as part of their Tinsel Town celebration. Click the button below to read Mitch Albom’s appeal and learn how you can vote for SAY Play’s “Merry Glitchmas” tree!
