Monthly Restorers
Become a monthly sustainer of Chaplains on the Harbor's work! Every week we run a range of survival projects-- six community meals, emergency shelter, jail visitations, and more. These critical programs form the bedrock of our human rights organizing by meeting immediate needs, as well as building relationships, trust, and leadership among the poorest people in Grays Harbor County.
As a monthly sustainer, you can help us:
-Offer ongoing education for formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated leaders ($25)
-Provide transportation to staff in our supportive employment program ($50)
-Print and circulate our jail and prison newsletter ($100)
We have hired seven people from our community and from the jail and the streets, all incredible people who have fought to rebuild their lives and are now building out our programming. We are dreaming big dreams-- growing food for the community, fighting for trauma informed treatment, advocating for housing, all while taking care of our neighbors the best we can with six feeding programs a week, a cold weather shelter, and weekly jail and street outreach. In the next year, we are building the structure we need to hire another round of apprentices and continue to grow our work and reach. We aim to become a major employer in Grays Harbor County, growing good food, creating a cafe, and creating small businesses that benefit the community, while hiring and supporting the people who have been left out of our social structure.
In the words of our founder, The Rev. Sarah Monroe, "I started this ministry with a backpack of sandwiches and a $500 grant six and a half years ago. Five years ago, we opened a community center and then shelter in Westport. Four years ago, we started an apprenticeship program for people coming off the street and out of jail. Two years ago, we launched Harbor Roots Farm, as a way to heal land and people together as we grow food for the community. As we begin this Lent, I remember that we are all made of dust. We use this to remind ourselves of our mortality, and there are few places we are more reminded of our mortality than on the streets of Grays Harbor, where we bury people at an alarming rate due to suicide, overdose, lack of medical care, and exposure. But those ashes remind us too that we are made of God's essence, that we are stardust. That every person we bury, and every person we meet, and every person who joins our work, are stardust--precious, brilliant, valuable, deserving of life and all good things. "
The tremendous leadership of our people, combined with your generosity, makes it possible for us to live up to our charge: to be the "restorers of streets to live in" (Isaiah 58:12). Join us!
