Lorain community activist and success coach Valerie Overton Howard deserves credit for her latest initiative to provide the homeless and less fortunate with a little something extra for the holiday season.
Over the past few years, Overton Howard has found ways to assist causes dear to her.
Through her Join Forces project, Overton Howard has helped to institute a new cause to support.
Known as Tools Under the Tent, the project aims to provide hats, mittens and hot meals to people living under the city’s bridges.
Lorain has the Charles Berry Bascule Bridge and the Lofton Henderson Memorial Bridge.
Overton Howard believes her efforts are an awesome way to get people who are like-minded to come together to help others.
Overton Howard, the wife of Bishop Charles Howard, pastor of God’s Kngdom Church in downtown Lorain, also hosts a talk show called “Valerie Overton Howard is Keeping It Real.”
Since it started in 2020, the show has featured a number of guests.
Through the show, she connects with the wider Lorain community.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, Overton Howard wanted to join forces with like-minded people, and started the show.
Guests included law enforcement officials, mental health experts, substance abuse counselors, people from the faith community and anyone who was in a position to help others.
Collectively, they planned community outreach events.
Thanks to her talk show, Overton Howard was able to create Tools Under the Tent.
Instead of working as different groups, the activists came together under the same umbrella.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, they pooled their resources to better help people.
As a unified consortium, they collected care packages and handed them out to the homeless people living under Lorain bridges.
And on Dec. 5, the group delivered the first 25 of the care packages.
Tools Under the Tent will not stop there.
Throughout the winter, they plan to continue going out to the community and delivering even more care packages.
The rest of the first round of care packages will go out Dec. 22 as part of the initiative’s Community Day.
Along with physical items, the group is looking to provide hope and holiday spirit to those who need it.
Organizers will have some Christmas music playing, and they are looking to pass out some soup.
Overton Howard also wants others to come together and join the effort because people really are in need.
If people can help, they really should consider lending a hand to Tools Under the Tent.
Overton Howard, also a life coach, entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker, just wants to help people and enlisted others to follow her.
But, there are other Lorain County organizations assisting those in need.
Neighborhood Alliance operates the Haven Center, which is the only 24-hour, 365-day emergency shelter in Lorain County that serves men, women and families.
The Haven Center offers a full-service, 68-bed facility with meals, toiletries, laundry and clothing as well as connections necessary to transition into independent housing.
Another is Catholic Charities St. Elizabeth House in Lorain, which provides daily hot meals, basic needs, a choice food pantry, fresh produce, rental and utility assistance, temporary overnight shelter, coordinated entry and case management.
Its men’s overnight shelter can support up to 50 men who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, as well as those with special needs.
For women, the Elyria YWCA operates the Women’s Campus Project, the first transitional housing project for homeless women in Lorain County.
The project provides transitional housing in several homes that the YWCA owns.
The Lorain County Office of Aging provides home-delivered meals to seniors in specific townships in Lorain County, Avon, Avon Lake, Sheffield, Sheffield Lake and Wellington.
The North Ridgeville Office for Older Adults Senior Center offers Meals on Wheels program to seniors 60 years and older.
Meals are delivered on Mondays and Wednesdays for a total of up to five meals per week.
North Ridgeville Community Care provides various emergent needs, including a food pantry, clothing/household Items, utility and housing assistance, summer lunches, school supplies and prescription financial assistance.
Faith House is a supportive housing program providing homeless single-parent families with disabilities the opportunity for housing with needed support services.
And there are others.
But Tools Under the Tent is bringing groups together to provide a little relief with some outerwear and hot meals to people living under the bridges this winter.
Overton Howard deserves credit for creating Tools Under the Tent because it is making a difference.
