Holistic Hardware: End Homelessness Through Personal Change
The reasons you continue to see homeless people walking the streets are almost as diverse as the number of people. How do we end homelessness when the causes are so unending?
The solution – the path off the streets and back to a life of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment – can be summed up in one phrase: Internal and external personal development. Or, put much simpler –
Change the inside, and the outside will follow.
Picture a man living on the streets of Seattle. He battles depression, addiction, and mild mental illness. When offered help, he blames other people for his situation.
What do we accomplish if we give this man free food? Or free health care? Or free housing?
We accomplish only one thing – we keep him alive.
Babysteps Ministry wants to do much more than just keep people alive. And for that, we’ve adopted a program called Holistic Hardware, developed by Joseph Holland, a Harvard-educated pioneer in the work to end homelessness who runs his own homeless ministry in Harlem.
What is Holistic Hardware?
It’s a training program specifically designed to end homelessness, permanently, one person at a time. It leads homeless people out of destructive patterns and ways of thinking.
It does this using 10 Holistic Tools that challenge participants and works to create inner transformation, leading to rebuilt lives.
Here are the 10 Tools:
- Responsibility – owning your role
- Vision – life goals to inspire and motivate
- Self-Esteem – rebuild the self, overcome personal barriers
- Faith – power to work through challenges
- Love – learn to help others, not just yourself
- Discipline – self-denial and doing the little things
- Association – break away from bad influences
- Planning – set goals, then develop a plan to actually reach them
- Work – the dynamic connection between character and skills
- Wealth – manage wealth, attain economic freedom
As you can see, this is an intense program. It holds nothing back, and challenges homeless people to change at the core of who they are. This is the third step of our 3-step program toward escaping homelessness.
It’s the one we reserve for people who have taken enough baby steps to reach a point where they’re determined to change, which is what Holistic Hardware requires of them. Some of these people may already be off the streets. But we want to keep them there, and do so much more.
The final product is a life transformed. A person who will be permanently off the streets, living with confidence, purpose, hope, and wisdom.
Big Vision to End Homelessness: We Want a Program House!
Our ultimate goal is to have a house where people can live while being led through the Holistic Hardware program. This is how Babysteps Ministry wants to lead and disciple people, with God at the center.
If you’d like to get involved in leading the homeless in love, we need your help. Sign up here to be a volunteer.
If you’d like to help us acquire the house we’ll need, support our house fund today!
