“They say it takes a village to raise a child, but in this case, 20 children are hoping to raise a village,” reports Good News Network.
Twenty teens and 10 adult volunteers have raised nearly $40,000 to build an eco-village they call “The Impossible City” for a homeless encampment in Seattle. The teens are working through Sawhorse Revolution, a non-profit carpentry program for high school students guided by professionals in architecture, engineering, and construction. The dollars raised through their campaign on Indiegogo will help build secure, personal shelters, composting toilets, and a community kitchen with solar-powered lighting and hot water.
The campaign has raised over $39,000 of their $42,905 goal so far, but for every $5,350 they raise above the previous goal, they’ll build another structure. Watch the video on Good News Network, then head on over to Indiegogo to see how you can help.
Such good works! Homeless shelter encampments are complicated issues. The building part is easier than making them safe communities. So many of our homeless are in desperate need of drug rehabilitation or mental health care. The violence of these communities are often the largest part of their demise. I just wish we had a healthcare system that made the necessary treatments available to actually help these men and women get hold of their lives and learn skills to be able to work, if physically able, or stabilize their mental illnesses. Maybe Seattle can create a shelter community that addresses all these needs and becomes a national template for other communities.
This will make an wonderful model example for so many cities struggling with this issue. The solution is not moving their communities to increasingly worse locations, as we are seeing happen even in this town. Once again we lay our hopes at the feet of our young people. And they are coming through 🙂