Let's Start the Club!

I initially figured the River Street Bridge Club would not begin until perhaps a year or more down the road.

Initially, the idea of the club was to provide support to formerly homeless people in order to prevent relapse of homelessness. It was designed as a way to keep formerly homeless people in contact with the RIVER Organization.

No, the River Street Bridge Club is not about the card game, bridge.

Nor, is it about the physical structure that connects two boundaries of land over water or gorge, per say.

The River Street Bridge Club is about connecting people with their future. It helps them cross over to the productive side of life. It is a Christian-based club, yet it is open to all people who are homeless, formerly homeless or at risk to becoming homeless.

Although my intentions were to start the club much farther down the road, I think I will start it sooner. Perhaps, we can start within two months.

I have about a dozen homeless people in mind for the founding membership of the club. These people, are homeless people, and near-homeless people, who are all of good manner, well-behaved, and friendly toward other people. These good-natured people, the dozen or so individuals, would make an excellent core start-up membership for the club.

As I rethink my original intentions, there is no better time than now to start the club. Bringing good, core people into the club can also act as a way to introduce them to the fundamentals of the RIVER Organization and thus help move us forward.

In addition to what I had in mind in the Vision of the River Street Bridge Club for the future, I think starting the club now would be a wise move. If we can bring homeless people together, uniting them, we stand a greater chance of solving some of the many issues of homelessness.

We stand a greater chance of eradicating homelessness due to the fact the core members are homeless themselves and are the best people who can add solutions to the homeless problem.

Simply put, the homeless are the ones who understand the homeless problem more than any one else. The homeless know what works and what does not work. They know what could work, and what will work.

There are many brilliant people on the streets that are homeless and tapping into that vast resource would be the right thing to do.

One must keep in mind that the River Street Bridge Club is not a separate organization from the RIVER Organization, but is part of it. It is a club within the organization.

So, let's start the club and move on... shall we?

Cliff