My Story
My name’s Reed Fox and I'm helping homeless men and women get off the streets. I volunteer for Street Soccer USA, a non-profit organization that uses soccer
as a tool for social change for the homeless and gets 75% of its participants off the streets within a year. I’m a sophomore Commonwealth Honors College student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Although I'm only 19 years old, I have seen the power
of physical activity on homeless men, women and children. I know that this club will be successful and will be very beneficial to the town of Northampton. As a college student, I have very limited financial resources to contribute to this venture so I'm asking
for your help.
Plan of Action
We will start by meeting Friday mornings, once a week at the drop-in shelter in Northampton. With the help of the Mercy Health Care for the homeless, we will find as many participants as we can and then begin our workout. Along with UMASS-Amherst students,
athletes and faculty, we will stretch and then walk, run or jog depending on fitness levels. Following each workout, we will hold a meeting of participants and volunteers to discuss our life problems. We will all (including volunteers) set goals for ourselves
to accomplish throughout the week and then discuss how well we did the following week.
Our Vision
We want to create a sense of community. Many of these homeless individuals feel like they are isolated from society and we want to reach out a hand and show them that they are important members of society. We hope that this club will give participants the health,
confidence and belief necessary to find housing, employment and/or education.
We will use a model similar to a program that my friend is heavily involved in called Running Works.
http://www.runningworks.org/Welcome.html
Our wonderful partner from the Mercy House for the Homeless, Doreen Fadus and I
