This coming Monday April 4, Linda Vista, Inc. is hosting its 2011 Window of Opportunity Luncheon at 12:00 noon at the Holiday Inn, 2800 Presidential Drive. The Mistress of Ceremonies will be local television personality Marsha Bonhart. Featured speakers include the Honorable Barbara Gorman of Montgomery County Common Pleas Court and Amos Otis, President of SoBran.

The luncheon is the first fund raiser for Linda Vista. Funds raised will be used to support the organization’s efforts to transition homeless women and their children to permanent housing.

“Linda Vista provides housing and a high quality program that teaches self-sufficiency to homeless women ready for change. Linda Vista provides the women with a clear vision to the future for themselves and their children,” says Carmen Gooden, founder and executive director of Linda Vista. More than a way to raise dollars, this event seeks to enlighten a broader spectrum of the community about the staggering number of homeless women and children in need of housing and support services how Linda Vista is working to meet that need.

Since opening its doors in 2006, the Linda Vista has become a recognized provider of homeless services by the City of Dayton and Montgomery County homeless solutions program. For twenty-four months, residents participate in life skills sessions, job readiness training, parenting classes and personal development workshops. The children are enrolled in an on-site after school program and on the weekends and during school breaks, participate in cultural, sports and arts activities.

Nearly two hundred (200) women and their children have been referred to Linda Vista for housing and services from 2006 – 2010. Over the last three years, Linda Vista has maintained a 80% success rate for a positive exit (clients exit to permanent housing) and has maintained 100% capacity since 2009.

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Carmen and her staff seek to inspire the community to take a step forward to provide a caring and loving facility for women where they can regain and perpetuate their self-dignity in a challenging world. It is their firm belief that it “takes a community to heal a community.”

As one of the graduates of the program stated, “Life is a journey, but we are not defeated anymore.” Strong, meaningful words, from a person that has a new life, a successful life thanks to Linda Vista.

Open a window of opportunity for a deserving family by attending this event. Tickets can be purchased for $35.00 by calling 277-9663 or 397-6537.

How many times have you come home, ravenously hungry, opened the refrigerator door, did a quick once over, saw only a fridge full of food that need to be cooked and declared to yourself, “There is nothing to eat!” Now, imagine that scene again, but this time there is little to no food to be eaten and with hunched shoulders, you sighed, “There is nothing to eat.”

Millions go hungry every day - Photo by Lyric Fields

In a world where there are more than 1,000 billionaires with a net worth of $3.6 trillion, up from $2.4 trillion in 2009, (Forbes, 2010), there is an estimated total of 925 million people undernourished according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. There are number of factors that contribute to food scarcity globally, poverty being the leading cause.

In the Miami Valley many families come home to empty refrigerators every day. Unable to feed their children, they turn to local food pantries and social service agencies for support. Sometimes a teen or youth is left to fend for themselves. When that happens, they go to Daybreak, Dayton’s only homeless shelter for youth.

This week the Dayton Urban League Young Professionals (DULYP) in partnership with the Dayton Urban League Guild, the National Urban League (www.nul.org), and National Urban League partner, YUM! Brands is hosting a National Day of Empowerment to collect various non-perishable items for the youth served at Daybreak. At this event, the DULYP will report on its weeklong efforts to address world hunger by supporting this very worthy local agency. Donations of non-perishable food items (i.e. soup, Ramen noodles, tuna and Poptarts) along with gift cards to WalMart and Krogers will be accepted at this event.