Dallas reminds us that empowerment is “helping people understand that they already have power. We’re not giving power. They already have it and we just need to bring it out.” His lived experience makes Teri Jourdan, a Community Foundation donor partner and committee volunteer, passionate about Our LGBTQ Fund’s work to alleviate LGBTQ youth homelessness. He would like to see a change in narrative around those experiencing housing instability. “The language needs to improve,” he says. “Being homeless is not a condition. It is a situation. Use people first language. The last thing I wanted when I was struggling was pity. I wanted resources. I wanted outreach. I wanted visibility and communication.” KConnect echoes this message about bringing people into the center of the conversation. Lynne says even those working on housing issues sometimes “insulate ourselves from honest feedback. We have to make sure that whatever we’re doing matters to the people we’re trying to serve. Mental models are really hard to shift,” she explains. The shift begins with putting people who have experienced homelessness at the center of KConnect’s process. “Our data says that more than 6,000 families are homeless or facing homelessness. We plan to link that data with the stories of lived experience to change the narrative in Kent County,” she says.
Grand Rapids Community Foundation
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