Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Craig

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Feb 102012
 

Helping Heart Foundation Resident Craig from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Craig became a Helping Heart Foundation Resident a few years ago when he realized his options for safe, secure and affordable housing were running out. Having battled a lifelong addiction to alcohol and drugs Craig was beset upon by injuries and illnesses that made life on the street–and therefore life in and out of hospitals–an impossibility. Craig’s life is still difficult, but with the stable environment that the Helping Hearts Foundation provides he is making it one day at a time.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 503(c) non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Foundation Rescue – What We See

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Jan 032012
 

Wash your hands.

Western medicine is an amazing achievement in human history. To have banished from daily life the unsanitary conditions that breed viruses, bacteria and parasites is a major reason why humans are flourishing on the earth. Yet even in the most affluent of countries and the richest of cities, the causes of a great percentage of sickness and disease survive. A simple illness becomes a major illness when given the right conditions: A dirty kitchen breeds Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, a cut on the foot becomes a wound that won’t heal, a cold becomes pneumonia.

Every case is different but after a while, working within the system that was created to help the people so affected by poverty and disease, you can’t help but start to see patterns at work. Just as a thing is impossible to ignore once its existence is known, how can you turn your back on those in need? The elderly, the sick and the disabled living in society are often living in squalor, for no reason other than they can’t get around to clean like they once may have, and it’s unlikely they can afford to pay a cleaning service on a fixed income.

It’s the call no one ever wants to get. The one that comes in the middle of dinner, the middle of movie night, in the middle of the night: your loved one is in the hospital? How? Where? Why? What happened? A flood of questions inundates the mind, but the answers trickle out like the mirage of an oasis in the desert. These are the calls we get on a weekly and even a daily basis: can you please find a clean place to live for my father, my aunt, this patient? At the same time we can help a family member, a friend, a neighbor, we can also help stop the spread of unnecessary sickness and relieve the overcrowding in the hospitals, in the emergency rooms and in the shelters.

Wash your hands.

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Alberto

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Dec 272011
 

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Alberto from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Alberto’s is a bittersweet story of a man with a loving family, a positive outlook on life, boundless energy who was diagnosed with multiple terminal illnesses and spent his last days as a resident of the Helping Hearts Foundation. Surrounded by family and friends, he was smiling and talking up to the end. We wish that he may rest in peace.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Foundation Residents Sue and Bridget

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Dec 212011
 

Sue & Bridget from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Sue & Bridget have formed a part of the Helping Hearts Community for more than a year now. Living in the same house has allowed them to form a bond which has sped along the healing process for both of them, each in their own different ways. Proper placement within a nurturing environment while helping to maintain their autonomy and independence is just one of the ways we strive to help people.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Foundation Residents Roland and Janette

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Dec 202011
 

Helping Hearts Foundation Residents Roland and Janette from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Roland & his wife Janette have been with Helping Hearts Foundation for more than two years. Despite their own physical disabilites they do their best to act as anchors to the community of residents, by fixing breakfast every morning and talking openly and honestly.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Heather

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Nov 202011
 

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Heather from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Coming from a family with a history of bi-polar disorder did not help Heather when domestic violence reared its head in both of her marriages, the latter of which left her sexually battered, destitute and living alone–after an ugly divorce—in an apartment complex inhabited by rival gangs. The worst came to fruition as she was burnt, drugged and sexually assaulted by multiple males, after which she suffered a stroke which left her lying incapacitated and naked on the floor for several days. To add insult to injury the staff at the hospital did not believe her version of the story and as such did not complete a rape kit. Despite having lived a continuously tumultuous life of distress and violence over the past ten years, her spirit is indomitable and she has done her best to maintain a level head for more than a year at Helping Hearts Foundation.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Janette

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Nov 182011
 

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Janette from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Waylaid in Las Vegas by cardiac arrest while on a trip to Illinois to visit her grandchildren, one of the nation’s first female forklift operators was attacked by a ruthless mugger. Repeated kicks to the head resulted in severe brain trauma, three stints in her heart and spinal damage that left her nearly incapacitated. Transferred from a Las Vegas hospital to a Sacramento facility she has never fully recovered. Yet despite her horrible injuries she continues to be a big smile and warm personality while helping others in need. While recuperating from her injuries at her family’s home and waiting for her husband, she found Helping Hearts Foundation and convinced her husband that they had found a home.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Krista

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Nov 092011
 

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Krista from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Krista is the youngest resident the Helping Hearts Foundation has reached out to. She has been with us only a short time, but has touched the lives of many around her with her warm and exuberant energy and her desire to overcome life’s many obstacles. With positive outlook and continued support she will go far.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Bio Arturo

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Nov 012011
 

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Arturo from Helping Hearts Foundation on Vimeo.

Arturo has been a resident with Helping Hearts Foundation for more than a year. Since joining us he has thrived as an artist who appreciates the independent lifestyle HHF offers its residents.

Helping Hearts Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California that was created to help those in need of everyday living assistance. We believe our work lies in relieving the stress of the emergency rooms, hospitals, shelters, and the working poor who, due to an unending economic downturn, can no longer properly provide for their loved ones on a fixed low income. We want to be there for those people that are misplaced or are difficult to place, people from skilled nursing and referral agencies that have a difficult combination of problems to address, and people who need a high level of care and have a low income.

Helping Hearts Rescue Brothers Brad and Tim

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Oct 272011
 
Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Brad

Helping Hearts Foundation Resident Brad survived a lot more than Detox

Piled up mattresses and broken down, disused furnishings litter the walkway up to Brad and Tim’s room and board. The smell hits you before you open the door. You can’t quite say what it is, other than rot, but it’s pungent. So much so, Jimmy and Pak both need clean suits, masks and gloves before entering. Cockroaches lazily feasting upon trash, piled up for months, in the open. Toxic black mold covers the ceiling like a layer of paint. Cracked walls full of jagged breaks and holes, impassable hallways and the flooring rotting away beneath your feet have created squalid living conditions.

When Helping Hearts walked in they were two. When they walked out Helping Hearts had grown richer by two residents–Brad (pictured) & his brother Tim–who have been with the organization for more than a year now. Their previous living situation proved to be so infested with fleas, ticks, roaches, rats and other pests that none of their furniture could be moved to their new house and their clothing had to be sanitized by professionals.

Seeing good people in bad housing is a terrible thing, but all too common in situations where people in need of physical and / or psychological help have only their monthly pensions on which to depend. Veterans like Brad, who looks after Tim, do receive a bit more, but often it is still not enough to provide safe and secure shelter that is convenient to hospitals and public transportation.

Their new house is a far cry from what they had convinced themselves was normal. Now they live in relative comfort and security and are in close proximity to healthcare facilities, bus and light rail, supermarkets and shopping centers as well as parks. They have a house, but what’s more, they have a community of people that understand what they have gone through living all around them. That’s more than a house. That’s a home.

Helping Hearts Foundation Residence

Brad & Tim's Helping Hearts Foundation Residence