photo by Franco Folini

You know that feeling you get when someone says something so out-of-the-box that you stand there, mouth agape, with time standing still? Finally you come to your senses and respond like an excited junior-higher, “That’s awesome!”?

That happened to me recently when my boss came to me and said, “You gotta talk to a guy named Ken Miller. He’s doing a ServeHope project in Boulder, Colorado that’s unlike any other. He’s getting a group of homeless guys together to serve the poor locally and globally.”

I stood astonished as my mind connected the dots. Awesome.

So, I called Ken and got the details. Ken is the Director of Project Revive, a non-profit that helps create enhanced communication and collaboration between government, businesses, non-profits, faith communities and people in the margins of society.

What Ken drove home to me is the need to restore dignity. He pointed out: “Sometimes people in mainstream society think the greatest need of homeless people is ‘stuff’. But it’s secondary. The greatest gift is giving them a piece of their dignity back, looking them in the eye, asking them their name, having a conversation. This gives them more, in some cases, than a couple of dollars.”

When Ken heard of GHNI’s ServeHope event, he decided to gather a group of homeless people not to be served, but to serve. It’s about giving them dignity and helping the general public see them as men and women who have something to offer, and not merely as people in need.

Ken shared: “They may be in a place and time in life where they’re down and out, but they have skills, value, gifts; they can make a contribution…We all lose when we fail to see everyone in our society as part of our community…The more I’m disconnected from people like that, the more I miss out. They have a lot to give me. I want to help raise the awareness of our need for each other.”

As a result, on October 16^th a group of 10 to 12 homeless men & women will lead the charge to clean up Boulder Creek. Boulder Creek is the “main thoroughfare” for people living on the margins of society in Boulder. That’s where they walk, congregate, and where many of them live.

What most Boulder residents don’t realize is that there are people in the homeless population who care about the city and about Boulder Creek. They want to help clean it up. And so they will.

Think about it: a group of homeless people in Boulder, Colorado, as a part GHNI’s ServeHope nationwide event, will raise funds to help the poorest of the poor around the world. It’s the poor serving the poor in America, while also helping the poor internationally. It’s a win-win.

As I said, awesome!

To financially sponsor Ken’s group, just visit Ken’s ServeHope page.

If you would like to contact Ken to learn more, you can reach him at ken.miller@uscm.org or 720-317-7558

Naomi Schalm
GHNI Web Journalist