Giving Thanks : Spirit Can Soar by Lending a Hand at Interfaith Council

Whatever our current circumstances, for each of us there is surely a place somewhere in our daily living or in our memory or in the deep recesses of our heart that is particularly bright, that merits our special gratitude. At least one special reason to be thankful on this Thanksgiving Day.

For many area residents--whether they use its services or work as volunteers--one of those bright spots is the North County Interfaith Council. When I visited the council facilities in Escondido several weeks ago, my personal lamp was very low. Hours later, I left that place buoyant and brightened by the atmosphere I found there, and by the revelation that so many with so little were finding so much help offered unselfishly.

With its mission to “help people help themselves,� the Interfaith Council reaches far beyond its grasp, but reach it does.

Its 15 paid staff members and 1,200 volunteers create a working partnership with the homeless and the disadvantaged, designing and implementing programs to help them help themselves.

The council is funded by contributions, grants and in-kind donations, augmented by three successful businesses: a boutique, a thrift shop and a furniture store. As a nonprofit, nondenominational amalgam of more than 60 religious organizations, the council is proud that no one is ever charged for services received and that there are no religious criteria for seeking or receiving help.

Each of the retail stores is managed by a professional staff; all other helping hands belong to dedicated volunteers, usually seniors, who often work in pairs. Supervising and motivating the workers is Philip Landis, a former banker and businessman whose enthusiasm for the agency and the people it serves is contagious. As Landis took me on tour, he continued working, alert to volunteers, staff and customers.

The Thrift Shop is well-lit and neatly arranged with a variety of clothing, shoes, strollers, glassware. The highest price tag in the store is $25--for a fur-trimmed all-wool coat. The atmosphere of the store, managed by Lucille Knight and her assistant Debra Chapwisk, is bright and warm.

The Furniture Store, with secondhand items, is open for limited hours because of a shortage of staff. Landis said all help is welcome, but men with strong backs are especially needed. He wants to be able to assist the single mother, for example, who might purchase a couch, then need help getting it home.

The boutique, Fabulous Finds, sells only new wearing apparel. Phyllis Fishleder, its director-buyer, stocks the shop with fashionable clothing at discount prices. The ambience of this place matches many full-price boutiques, and its volunteer saleswomen glow with pride in their work.

The net proceeds from these three stores, the food items that we deposit at our churches, synagogues, schools and organizations, plus donations from Von’s and Price Club and other businesses, help support the Interfaith Council’s program of providing meals for an average of 250 people each day.

Whether it is a hot meal for a homeless person or a food order for a hungry family, no one is turned away. According to Bob Klug, food and shelter programs manager, anyone with a photo ID is eligible for help. (Those without one are directed to the nearby Department of Motor Vehicles office, which can issue an identification card. Frequently a volunteer goes along to ease the transaction.)

Breakfast is served daily to anyone who walks in hungry and a sack lunch is also available. Dinner is served only to those in Interfaith Council shelters.

The 10-bed men’s shelter is part of council’s facility in Escondido and a shelter for mentally disadvantaged women is in the same neighborhood. Both are staffed and supported by the agency and its volunteers.

Volunteers come in all “shades of gray.� One of them, a 77-year-old woman, is legally blind. Each morning she leaves her home in San Marcos at 5:30, takes the bus to Escondido, serves breakfast to the hungry and returns home at 8:30. She has been doing this for five years.

Many of us are eager to reach out to the disadvantaged, to those in pain, but serving food and selling clothing or furniture may not be our endeavors of choice or expertise.

Some who want to recycle their professional skills find the right opportunity at the Crisis Center operated by the Interfaith Council. This center is staffed by volunteer professionals: social workers, psychologists, teachers, attorneys; most of them are retired people who wish to continue working in their chosen or allied fields.

Rabbi Ben Leinow, counseling coordinator for the Interfaith Council, supervises these counselors. Under his guidance, each functions within his or her own know-how, from the first stages of contact where needs and plans are defined to a complex structure of supportive therapy.

The coordinator reports that counseling subjects run the gamut of human difficulties, including such immediate needs as crisis management, family interaction, tutoring, budget evaluation, job choice, legal assistance, resource finding.

“The clients at NCIC are treated with professional, tender-loving care,� Leinow said. “Our mission and goal are helping people to help themselves.�

Counseling can be completed after as few as two sessions or as many as 12. Clients can become involved in counseling at the point they recognize they have a problem and willingly participate in constructing a solution.

The counselors, too, receive their share of loving and supportive care. Their training and orientation programs are followed by ongoing opportunities for “networking� with the coordinator, other counselors and staff personnel. Each works a minimum of eight hours a week, usually two four-hour sessions.

North County Interfaith Council is a jewel with many facets: Members of diverse religions and denominations join hands for the betterment of the disadvantaged. Despairing families who walk through the doors, hungry, homeless, jobless, friendless and anxious, know that here they have found a helping place; volunteers who recycle their professional talents find fulfillment in the knowledge that they are needed; children climbing the benches while their parents receive counsel know instinctively that this is a loving place where the adults mean it when they smile.

On this Thanksgiving Day, I am especially grateful that in North County, a particularly bright spot exists, where faith, caring and outreach are alive and well.

If you wish to join the team at the North County Interfaith Council or learn more about their service, call 489-6380.