Showing up in times of crisis

Hello Friends of RCI,

Our community center is open and operating during the COVID-19 crisis, as we know that many of our friends simply don’t have the option of staying home. We are so grateful to everyone who has reached out of the past week with offers to volunteer, donate, and generally care for our community members. As you can imagine, our staff is working very, very hard to make sure we can continue to serve our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness.

 We are all doing a lot more with a lot less, and the reality is that we may not be able to answer every phone call, text, and email that we receive. Please know, though, that we appreciate you more than ever, and we can absolutely use your help to get through this difficult time.

To help us better communicate, we have created a page on our website that list the items that we need at this time: https://www.ripplecommunityinc.org/covid-19-needs

If you can donate any of these items, we ask that you please drop them off at RCI during the hours that our community center is open (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 1-5pm, and Friday and Saturday from 11am – 1pm). We will keep this list updated as our needs change, so please check back regularly.

Thank you for all the ways that you support us, so that we can support our community.

Thanks to City Center Allentown!

RCI was recently featured in City Center Allentown’s Community Impact report!

Click here to view the video. We are grateful for City Center’s ongoing support of the RCI Village program, which provides safe, healthy, affordable housing for our most vulnerable neighbors.

It Takes a Village

Helping people who are homeless or low-income find housing stability is no easy task. There are many factors that cause people to have housing instability or lose housing. You can compare it to the game of Jenga. Sometimes you can lose or remove certain pieces of your life and not fall apart. But as the tower continues to lose more and more pieces, it becomes more and more unstable. Many people we encounter are living fragile and unstable lives. Once they lose that last piece holding them up, everything collapses and they are left picking up the pieces of their life.

At RCI Village, we try to piece that life back together. Our program combines permanent, affordable housing with wrap- around support in order to create stability and long-term success. So far, this model has proven effective. We know it takes a village for someone to be rooted in a community that allows them to flourish. We have seen the value and success in people’s lives when they have a community that cares for them and a safe place to live. The work of creating stability in a fragile world is not always easy, but we press forward knowing that the work we do is crucial in the lives of our village.

RCI in the news!

In case you missed it, RCI is featured in today’s Morning Call as one of several census hubs around the city. Click the button below to read the article.