The name of this organization says it all: “The Empowerment Plan”. They hire homeless women, give them jobs sewing coats which turn into sleeping bags to provide warmth to the homeless, and in doing so, provide a future, hope, support, love, awareness, empathy and transformative change to so many. Each woman taken off the street and given a job is then able to have a home where she can now safely raise her child or children, thus breaking what could have been a vicious and destructive cycle. Not only can she now support herself, but she is doing so by caring for the homeless, which is a constant reminder of where she was and where she never hopes to be again. For those receiving the coats, they are made aware that others are thinking of them, and those other people were like them and their lives were able to change, and so too can theirs. In Hebrew, the word “to give” is a palindrome. It is read “natan” if you read it from right to left or left to right. This is because true giving is when we receive so much from the process and when we truly are able to receive, we have gifted the other with the ability to give. The Empowerment Plan is a beautiful example of this concept.
