History of The N.O.A.H. Project
...because everyone needs a family...
History: The N.O.A.H. Project began in 1976 as
a Bag Lunch Program due to the members and staff of Central United Methodist Church realizing the need for homeless and working poor individuals in the
community to gain access to lunch. In 1999, Central United Methodist
Church recognizing that people needed more than a meal, partnered with Family
Services, Inc. to expand the Bag Lunch Program into The N.O.A.H. Project: Networking, Organizing, and Advocating
for the Homeless.
With the incorporation of The N.O.A.H. Project came an
expansion of The Bag Lunch Program to strive to meet the nutritional needs of
Homeless Individuals. N.O.A.H.
reached out to churches and community organizations in the greater Detroit area
to provide more nutritional lunches to its participants. In 2011
51 churches and community organizations provided Bag lunches to 22,000 of our
homeless Brothers and Sisters in Detroit, many of them doing multiple
dates. Area Methodist churches and
UMWs, Lutheran churches, Baptist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and
community organizations like the Local 600 and Kiwanis Club made this possible.
Bag Lunch at The N.O.A.H. Project is
about much more than simply providing physical nourishment. On Bag Lunch days clients
sign-up for social services and barber services, receive hygiene kits, pick up
their mail and use the phone. On
Mondays clients can see a Nurse Practitioner to receive medical treatment and
have health questions answered.
Art & Soul: On Bag Lunch Days participants also
have the opportunity to enjoy creative, expressive art projects through a
program pioneered by a group from Birmingham First UMC. A dedicated group of volunteers drive
down from Birmingham every Monday & Thursday and do art projects during bag
lunch and then afterwards head upstairs at Central to a studio space where they
engage in more intensive projects, many of which end up in art exhibits in
Detroit and beyond.
Social Services offered at N.O.A.H. are geared to
assist people with emergency needs, and include transportation assistance,
perscription assistance, funding to assist clients in getting a Michigan State
ID, funding to assist with doctor’s co-pays, eye glasses, emergency dental
work, food and clothing referrals, hygiene items, underwear, socks, gloves,
scarves, blankets, etc.
While the material goods provided at
N.O.A.H. are undoubtly important and necessary, they are not the focus of the
project. Instead the assistance offered during social services and Bag Lunch
days are the enticement to get people through N.O.A.H.’s door and keep them
coming back. Our goal at N.O.A.H. is to provide a sense of family, belonging
and self-worth to those who are so often without it. This sense of family is
only possible when trusting relationships are developed and it is only when an
individual has built up their own sense of self-value that they feel empowered
to create change within their own lives.