Our Journey together — so far!

In October 2024 we began the “Illuminators” program and hired two people who live on the street to identify the gifts, talents, dreams, and passions of people who live on the street. 

The first person we hired is Travis Hale-Kesler. We asked Travis to find a colleague that he wanted to work with and he chose Nesti Castillo due to her experience being unhoused and the morals she espoused that prepared her for the job at hand.

We spent a couple of weeks getting to know each other and developing/growing our relationship as well as planning our next steps.

On November 16, we had a gathering of more than 50 people — housed and un-housed — to have a conversation titled “Re-imagining Community: Falling In Love With One Another and to What End.” Four authors and three unhoused members had a conversation addressing the many complex issues that being homeless presents us with. The event was well received and relationships were forged.
Hear the conversations.

Two months later a small group of 16 individuals organically came together due in part to the growing relationships that began to be forged at our first event back in November. So on January 15, 2025, a second event to discuss citizen safety unfolded between eight un-housed and eight housed friends. They came together to discuss the issue of individual and collective community safety. 
More about this event.