Roger Houston

We all had a fabulous night at the Talking Stick in Venice on Friday night! The juices were flowing and excitement was palpable (love that word). Several great performers lent their time to help us empower people without homes.

To the best of our knowledge, this was the first ever concert by homeless or formerly homeless musicians for the benefit of other homeless people. Empowered people create their own solutions and connections. We need only provide a way for them to do it.

Roger Houston started off the evening and really warmed up the crowd (even he was sweating).  With his double-necked guitar and Oscar Silvas playing the congas, it sounded great.

Carol McArthur

Next up was Carol McArthur, and she blew us away. She only did three tunes, but they were masterpieces as was her picking of that wonderful 12-string guitar.

Kent Klineman and his sidekick Gary from their band Blind Pony came up and really cooked. Kent’s original material is really great and the licks Gary served up were really tasty.

Blind Pony

Amy Ultch

After showing our short documentary film, I played my songs about homelessness and then Amy Ultch soothed our tired souls with her wonderful voice and guitar. Amy’s songs are amazing and we were blessed to have her.  Bruce took the stage and just smoked that Roland keyboard, I think the keys melted! He did some great jazz versions of Stevie Wonder and a few other tunes as well.

Bruce

It was an exciting evening and we were very happy to have the Ventura County Star covering the event. Marjorie Hernandez was just amazing. She filmed the entire event and interviewed several people, sometimes simultaneously. Now that is talent. Karen Quincy Loberg, the photographer was also incredle talking with people are shooting pictures everywhere it seemed.

You can read Ventura County Star story here

We plan to create more of these events in Southern California and elsewhere in the near future.  If you would like to help, please Contact Us.

Hearts Of Fire Project On The Air

Catch me on the radio! I’m was on the Dr. Bunny Vreeland show on AM 1400 in Ventura, CA on Friday, February 19 at 3PM PST. Listen to the show on Dr. Vreeland’s web site here.

Unique Live Music Event, Friday March 5

A unique performance featuring homeless and formerly homeless singer/songwriters. Several talented artists will take the stage with their original music at The Talking Stick, 1411 Lincoln Avenue in Venice, CA. The bill includes: Sunny War, Ishmael, Blind Pony, Javelyn, Bob Ballard and direct from Europe, Peter Kasen!

Show starts at 7PM. Art work and a short documentary film about the Hearts Of Fire Project will also be featured. You don’t miss this one-of-a-kind event! Donation/admission $3 to support the Hearts Of Fire Project.

Art Show, February 2010

Now through February 28 at Oxnard Community College Library. In the lobby you will see art created by the homeless people of Ventura County.

L-R Ed, Mikey, Bob, Maria, Victoria & Connor

Wow! What an amazing day we had at the launch of our new Motor Home Housing Program. This past Saturday, January 30 we awarded a motor home to Maria Pollack and her son Mikey at a ceremony hosted by Regalo Virgin Olive Oil. Representatives from three local newspapers covered the event as well as the local access TV station. (See links to stories below)

Maria and her son were overjoyed when they saw the motor home; tears rolled down her face as she expressed her gratitude to everyone involved. Ed and Connie Bermudez donated the RV a few weeks ago. Ed wanted it to go to a homeless family. It was his generosity that started the program.

Victoria Stratton is Maria’s friend and sponsor. Victoria volunteers with Casa Esperanza homeless shelter in Santa Barbara where she heard about our program. She contacted me and told me about Maria and her son Mikey. Like many homeless people, Maria is employed but doesn’t earn enough money to rent an apartment or even buy a car. Maria met Victoria at church a year or so ago and they became friends. In addition to connecting Maria with our program, Victoria is providing a private parking place for the motor home on her property.

More families have contacted us who want to participate in this program. We are looking for more late model motor homes in good shape and people to help us give them a second life.  We are also need places to store the RV’s temporarily while we get them ready to distribute to homeless families. If you can help, please call our toll free message line at 877-827-2012 or email us at heartsoffire@ureach.com.

Media Links

Ventura County Star

Ventura County Reporter

Video (courtesy of Barrett Productions)

Kim, the author of the following article, visited a shelter for the first time and explains what that was like for her. She was surprised at how different it was than she imagined. Like many people, she is sympathetic to the homeless and has been actively involved in helping them by donating items to shelters. However, until now, she had never actually been there. I would love to know your thoughts about this article; please share them.

Thank you.

New Home

We are pleased to announce our first RV award! On Saturday, January 30, we will give Maria and her son an RV! Maria is a caregiver who has been staying at client homes trading her services for rent. Like many low income people, she doesn’t earn enough to move out and get her own place. She and her 12 year-old son have health issues which make it even more difficult for them to live without their own place.

Maria is very fortunate to have a wonderful friend, Victoria. Victoria found out about the RV Makeover Project from the Casa Esperanza shelter in Santa Barbara where she volunteers. Victoria contacted me and told me about Maria. I subsequently had a great meeting with her and later, with Maria.

Maria and her son are very excited and can’t wait to see the RV. They will do that for the first time at our award ceremony on January 30 at 1 PM. We are holding the ceremony at Regalo Virgin Olive Oil, Inc. at 283 Carne Road in Ojai. Regalo has been a big supporter of the Hearts Of Fire Project and we would like to honor them as well.

We are inviting the media and all of our friends to this event. Our intention is to attract more RV donations and volunteers to help us fix them up. I promise it will be an inspiring time for all.

Outside San Francisco City Hall

A lot of wonderful things happened in 2009 and I am grateful for all the fantastic people who supported us in empowering homeless people in 2009. Like most people, we have faced a lot of challenges this year but we have persevered through it all.

I thought it would be a good idea to get some perspective on the year, looking back to see what was accomplished. Here are some of the highlights of 2009:

I was a guest on three radio talk shows and appeared on  prime time news on Santa Barbara’s KEYT TV

We held a number of events and “firsts” including:

• • two fundraisers at theaters in Ojai in Santa Barbara featuring Ellen Snortland and her one-woman play, “Now That She’s Gone”
  • the Ventura County Fair, we spent 11 days at the main gate sharing our message with the 300,000 people passed through
  • held four art shows and film screenings in Ventura and Ojai
  • traveled to Homeless Connect Day in San Francisco, delivered art workshop and interviewed participants
  • assisted at Homeless Connect Day on Skid Row in Los Angeles, serving more than 3,600 people
  • received our first donated vehicle, made first merchandise sale from web site
  • benefited from first third-party eBay store to support project
  • launched homless artist mentoring program
  • started RV rehab project and received first donated RV

There are many more great things that happened and so many wonderful people. At the risk of leaving someone  out, I acknowledge the following people for their service to the project this year:

Jill Mooney, Gayle Ballard, Jillian Nye, Jonathan Fidelibus, Bill & Mary Hatch, Diane Treanor, David Beyer, Yudit Ecsedy, Laura & Giovanni Yanez, Jeanne Scott, Jeff Flanzer, Geri Dimmick, Donna Bernard, Jeff Luttrell, John Morell, Scott Smith, Ian James, Kenyon Taylor, Mary Rose Hampton, Carlo Ami, Mark McFeely, Don Clegg, Susan Justice, Roslyn Scheureman, Nancy Black, Issac Hernandez, Charlotte Janus and Linda Cauldwell.

I wish everyone a prosperous and peaceful 2010!

We sold greeting cards and art prints as well items provided by local merchants and artists. Our friend, Yudit Ecsedy displayed some of her amazing “angel” art as well hand-made leather cell phone holders. Our friends from Ventura Values were also on hand giving away their one-of-a-kind merchant discount cards.

We enjoyed all the great entertainers and performers, and the daily fashion shows were awesome. On Saturday, Bob performed four of his original songs to a small, but enthusiastic audience. Jonathan was possessed to film the performance, so we will post it here once we get it edited.

Our primary purpose in being at the event was to develop support for our new RV Rehab Project. We found a place to park the first RV and two people to help fix it up. We also found an interior designer who is excited about redecorating the interior. Wow! I can’t wait to see what she does.

All in all we had a wonderful time and are looking forward to working with Help Homes USA, Inc. and the other event sponsors in the near future. Stay tuned, more major events are in the works.

Our second objective was to let people know about the upcoming Art Show. With our partner ARC Ventura we are having a joint “Outsider Art” show at the Ojai Enrichment Center at 210 Canada Street in Ojai on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 10AM - 4PM.  At this event, we will showing more than 50 orignal pieces including some new ones from our workshop in San Francisco with Project Homeless Connect. In addition, we will be raffling off some great items including local gourmet Regalo Olive Oil, clothing from True West and a beautiful book of art photographs from the Ojai Valley. Hope to see you there!

Lillian & Student

This past week, I had the privilege of visiting with two powerful art programs on Skid Row in Los Angeles that are empowering the people from the neighborhood. The SRO Art Workshop and the Lamp Community Art Project have been working with homeless and low income folks for years, persisting and flourishing despite a lack of resources. The success of these programs is attributable to the people who have made them happen and who really care about the people they serve.

Lillian Calamari started her Art Workshop on her own time 8 years ago. She works for SRO Housing, a non-profit that provides housing for low income people. Lillian began her workshop in the lobby at the St. Vincent dePaul shelter where demand soon outpaced her supply. She move d the program to larger space at the James Woods Center and recently took up residence at a wonderful new studio provided by SRO Housing. Although she still runs the Art Workshop without pay, she receives some donations to purchase art supplies.

When I was there, several woman were working away on their creations. Lillian strolls from table to table, offering suggestions and encouragement to everyone. Many of the works are displayed on the wall and she is working to include them in local art shows and galleries. The artists and their work were featured in the critically acclaimed film Humble Beauty.

Lamp Community Art Studio

A few blocks away, the Lamp Community Art Project shines like a beacon of creativity in an otherwise bleak section of Skid Row.  Hayk Makhmuryan, the Director, is enthused about his program and the people it serves. The art studio is open 3 days a week for a few hours each afternoon. The small, narrow room is filled with art work, supplies and all kinds of painting paraphernalia. While I was there, three people were working on their paintings and were happy t o show them to me.

I spent some time talking with Emery who was creating a stylized portrait of Marilyn Monroe.  Emery was originally from Phoenix and ended up on Skid Row several years ago. Since then, he has lived in shelters  and dealing with his disability. He loves to paint and comes to the studio in his wheel chair whenever he can get there. Emery makes a few dollars selling his paintings, his images of Kobe Bryan and Obama are quite popular.

Emery Self Portrait

I am working with Lillian and Hayk to identify artists who would like to participate in the Hearts Of Fire Project’s new artist sponsor program. We will be matching artists with people who wish to personally support and encourage the artists. We are working on a web site that will profile each artist and allow people to link with them, meet them and get to know each other. This is exciting!

Home On Wheels

Look at this beautiful 27-ft, 1985 Suncrest RV! Thanks to our friend Ed from Newbury Park, CA, this RV will soon be home to a local family.

We are launching the RV Rehab Program with this donated vehicle.  This baby runs great and has only 60K miles on it. However, it needs some interior systems work. It is very roomy inside and sleeps up to eight people!

We are looking for volunteers to help us get this RV in good working order for its new owners. If you would like to help, please let us know. Time, money and skills are needed. We also need a place in Ojai, CA to park the vehicle until it is “adopted.”  Please contact Bob at 877-827-2012 and leave a message or email us at heartsoffire@ureach.com if you can help.

With winter setting in, it would be really great to provide shelter for one of the many families that are without homes. Let’s do it!

Interior

We traveled from Ojai to San Francisco to participate in Homeless Connect Day at Bill Graham Auditorium on October 28. Although we knew it was a big event, we really had no idea how it would go.

After a frantic week of last-minute fund raising, we were finally posed to go. On October 27 at 6AM, I chugged down to Ventura to pick up Jillian - an amazing woman and supporter who came along to lead the art workshop we planned for the event. Next, we rolled over to San Clarita to pick up Jonathan - an extraordinary young man who is inspired by the Project.

After battling high winds for 6 hours, we finally arrived in San Francisco. It was early evening by then and we were looking for some place to spend the night in the RV. As you probably know, San Francisco is not an RV-friendly place and our plan to camp outside the auditorium fell through. Fortunately, I had a back up plan and we found a spot at Candlestick RV park which oddly enough is right across the street from Candlestick Stadium, home of the 49′ers.

Jill In A Hole

We managed to get some sleep despite the strange clanking and bumping sounds that penetrated our subconsciousness as the winds roared through the night. I was a little concerned about sleeping in the bed too because it collapsed just before we reached the RV park. Jillian was relaxing back there when we hit a big speed bump. The bed platform and Jillian went up in the air and came crashing down, trapping her down in the corner. As soon as we got the park, Jonathan literally jumped into action, screw driver in hand, climbing over the upended platform and reattaching the supports that had broken. Hurray for Jonathan!

Main Event

We hit the road at 5:45AM to get our parking spot on Grove street in front of the Bill Graham Auditorium. We were one of the first vehicles there, so we got a really good spot. Soon, volunteers began to stream in the doors of the auditorium and we joined them. We hauled our art supplies across the street and into the auditorium. We searched for our assigned tables, but came up empty. However, the amazing Sharon Johnson from Project Homeless Connect soon solved the problem and placed us right in the middle of the entire floor. Yes, the Hearts Of Fire Project was at the heart of the event! (If you look close, you will see our banner in the center of the photo).

Once we were set up, Jonathan and I headed outside to talk with the homeless people who were waiting in line. And what a line! It stretched all the way down the front of the building and around the corner. Hundreds were lined up waiting to get in at 10AM. We interviewed several people who told us about their experiences and their lives on the streets of San Francisco. Jonathan filmed most of these talks and all of them were amazing. We will be posting the video as soon as we finish editing it.

Jonathan & James

James was one of the people we talked with outside on the street. He was in a wheel chair yelling at people. He was mad about people getting in line before him, he was mad the police who didn’t make them move and it turns out, he was just really angry about his life. I had an amazing conversation with James. He told me about his suffering, how his life used to be when he was a buyer for Sacks Fifth Avenue. How he used to travel to Europe to see the new fashions. James talked about his time in Vietnam and his greatest pain - being rejected by his mom and his aunt.  He was upset about losing a great opportunity to live in a condo unit for a year rent free. A few days ago, James hurried to his appointment to secure the place, but when he got there, the elevators didn’t work. He had to wait until someone took him up the stairs. When he got the office for his appointment, he was late, so they refused to help him. Now James is just angry.

As we talked about all this, I asked James about his anger. I asked him to describe it. What did it look like, what was its shape and size and color? He said it was colorless, like an invisible curtain blocking his way, surrounding him on all sides.  I asked what the colorless curtain wanted, what was it trying to do? James said it was there to protect him from harm, from hurt and pain. He realized that the curtain was not effective in doing that. So he created an angel, a Blue Angel of Forgiveness. And then we wept together, he forgave everyone and felt at peace. When we next saw him inside at our workshop, he was calm, gentle and loving, a totally different person.

Mark & Bob

The wind was still blowing hard and cold when ran into Mark, a young man who was looking for his friend. He was concerned because he hadn’t seen her in several days. Mark told us he was living in a tent under the Mission Street bridge for the last six months. He came to San Francisco from New York to meet a  long distance girl friend, but it didn’t work out. Mark is an artist so he starting selling his paintings on the street. He was doing OK, at least earning money for food, when he was caught up in a drug bust that went down on the sidewalk near him. Although he had nothing to do with the drug dealers (he doesn’t do drugs or drink, he has lung cancer), he was arrested along with everyone else. To get out of jail, he plead guilty to a misdemeanor (selling paintings on the street without a license) and is now on probation. He wants so much to go back to New York, he has friends and a loving family there. But he can’t leave while he is on probation, at least not legally. So Mark is stuck. He can’t leave and he really can’t survive on the streets much longer either. As we finished our talk, he ran to hug his missing friend and they looked very happy find each other.

We were heading back into the auditorium when I spotted a mom and dad and three kids standing on the sidewalk, but not in line. I asked them if they were going inside, but they said no, they didn’t have a ticket. The tickets were free and were used to manage the crowd flow, but the event managers had run out, there were none left. I went to the front of the line and asked the admission manager if the family could come in. He said sure, bring them to the front right away. So I did, and in they went, filled with gratitude;  hope was in their eyes.

Back inside we went to work letting people know we were there, passing out fliers and talking with people. We had our tables and art supplies all set to go and were looking for “customers.” There were so many services available that it was a little bewildering to the people coming in. So we directed people to the services they wanted. Medical and dental care, acupuncture, massage, hair styling, shelter space, counseling and legal services - even the DMV was there replacing lost ID’s. Everything under one roof, that is the concept behind Project Homeless Connect.

Art Workshop

As people handled their most pressing needs, they were free to come over to the Hearts Of Fire Project area and do some art work with Jillian and Jonathan. Before long, we had the seats filled and people were drawing in earnest.

James, David, Maria, Seth, Sandra, Dolly, George and others immersed themselves in their work. Before long, we had some great art work and are looking forward to getting it up on our web site. Everyone had a great time, including Catherine and Gidalia - two local art therapists who came by to help out.

It was a life-altering experience to be with 2,400 homeless people as they came in off the streets and felt the love and caring that the 1,000 volunteers from Project Homeless Connect provided. The air was filled with compassion and connection - I have never experienced anything like it. Several homeless people that I spoke with told me how much love they felt there and some were moved to tears by it.  George was one of them.

George

When I first noticed George, he was sitting quietly in his wheel chair off to the side of the flow. He smiled when I said hello and I took his hand in mine. I felt stubs where his fingers used to be, his hands now covered with red sores. One of his legs was missing too. I touched his shoulder and asked if he would like to come and do some art work with us. He was delighted and followed me, pushing the wheels with his stumpy hands - I could see where the sores came from now. George took a place at a table and was smiling from ear to ear. Somehow he managed to draw, engrossed in making the marker go where he wanted on the page.  We talked on camera a little, but he was shy and we respected that. George left with happiness and hope and with our love and good wishes.

The event ended at 3PM, so we packed up the art work and supplies and stored it all in the RV. Since this was the 5th anniversary of Project Homeless Connect, we were invited to a big celebration upstairs. The room was filled with volunteers, food and drink and we had a wonderful time talking with people involved in the event. We learned that Homeless Connect Day started in San Francisco 5 years ago and since been replicated in more than 200 cities and three other countries. All of us were so grateful to be included in the celebration, it was very inspiring.

Bob, Jonathan & Jillian

After the party, we retired to the RV and headed out in search of a nearby parking lot where we could spend the night. We were elated but exhausted. We planned to meet with some people the next day to make arrangements for our next trip to the Bay Area to visit shelters there. Yes, it really was an experience of a life time. I left my hearts of fire in San Francisco.