SO MANY SOBER PEOPLE!
May 2024 Newsletter
A PERSONAL NOTE FROM ABRAM
Dear friends and supporters,
It’s been quite some time since I last sent out news from Iglutecha! In the busyness (well, sometimes even chaos) of daily life, sit-down-at-a-desk tasks like newsletters can fall by the wayside for months at a time. One of my goals is to make these updates more frequent and share more of the success stories we’re seeing and the big things that God is doing in the lives of so many.
May 25th marked my NINE-YEAR anniversary of living and working on Pine Ridge Reservation. I’m filled with gratitude for everyone who has made this possible, for every dollar donated, every pack of socks, and every word of encouragement. Together, we have saved lives, helped people turn their lives around, and shown the love of God in the process. This work has been more of a marathon than a sprint, and I’m so thankful for the people who have shown up along the way to cheer it on. I hope you’ll be with me for the next leg of the race- greater things are yet to come! Now, on to the news:
SO MANY SOBER PEOPLE!
We had two tents that housed transitional shelter clients. We completely filled the men’s transitional shelter to the point where we even had beds in the aisles, and we still had clients waiting to get in. One of the reasons we had to close down the low-barrier shelter (emergency shelter for individuals who are intoxicated) was that we had too many sober men!
Currently we have about 24 sober guests staying with us each night, and up to 30! Two of our guests have maintained sobriety since July 2023 when we first opened. Other guests have gotten sober and moved into stable living situations. Now that we are operating year round we are able to give our guests the stability that they need to get their lives back on track. We have seen our shelter guests become a force for good in the community around them! They volunteer in the church, the shelter, or Recovery meetings.
THIS MONTH’S RECOVERY HIGHLIGHT- HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION!
Our youngest resident has been able to complete his high school classes online while staying at the shelter, maintaining good grades. Tre graduated this past week, and got the loudest cheers out of anyone. Friends, fellow shelter residents, and shelter staff came out to celebrate his achievement! Tre has started working for Abram as an administrative assistant and plans to train to be a firefighter. We can’t wait to watch him tackle his next goal with the same strength, resilience, and compassion that he has shown while we’ve known him.
He’s a good young man and has broken up a sexual assault and helped a lady with cut wrists, using the shirt off his back to stop severe bleeding and using his belt as a tourniquet. He is a testament to self-empowerment- all he needed was stability, and encouragement to make huge changes in his own life. We want to provide this for everyone who walks through our shelter doors!
OUR CURRENT CAPACITY
Recovery meetings in partnership with Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church are now up to 6 per week, including 3 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, 2 Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and a Celebrate Recovery Group. We’re seeing about 12-18 people for a typical meeting! These meetings are attended housed and unhoused community members. It has been awesome to see the meetings catch on beyond our shelter bubble, allowing clients to build relationships outside of the “shelter bubble.
Iglutecha’s Overnight shelter provides a bed and a safe place to be. Residents have to be sober and actively working on their life goals. Each person attends at least two recovery meetings per week. They are connected with a caseworker who will help them set goals and hold them accountable for pursuing those goals.
Iglutecha’s Day Shelter is open to anyone whether they are sober or in active addiction Many community members who use Day Shelter’s services are unhoused, but we also serve community members who have homes but don’t have access to electricity or running water. Through Day Shelter, we offer showers, laundry, and a calm and healing environment to hang out, watch TV, and socialize.
Guests can use our P.O. Box and phone, which makes it possible to obtain vital documents and access government assistance and employment. Our readers might not realize how an ID, address, and phone open up the world. You cannot get a job without identification, and you can’t apply for benefits without an address. Clients won’t hear back on their housing applications unless they have a stable phone number.
Food, Hygiene Items, and Clothing: we fed a lot of food, 2,259 meals, last month! We also maintain a clothing bank to give clean clothes, socks, and underwear to whoever needs them. The shelter also provides hygiene items to anyone in need.
OUR NEEDS
Long-term volunteers/Interns
If you or someone you know is looking for a summer internship, we’d love to host several students through Iglutecha. We’re looking for interns to work in operations, admin, and even maintenance while learning alongside our team!
Financial Support
As exciting as it is to see the record number of sober guests, our team admittedly worries about keeping up with the needs! With high numbers of residents comes higher operating costs and grant funding comes and goes. We are nearing the end of a large grant with no definite grant funding in the future. You can become a monthly donor through our website or mail a check.
PRAYER REQUESTS
• Please pray for strength and resilience for our small staff!
• As decisions are made that affect our shelter and services, pray for the leaders of our community to have wisdom and discernment to serve the people of Pine Ridge.
• Pray with us for God’s provision of funds to sustain our staff and programming as several grants end in the next months.