I was out and about in our community today and between a parking lot and my destination I passed two females with children exchanging candy for cash and a man in a wheelchair asking me to help a veteran. I know that the village of Oak Park prefers or encourages us to donate the cash I might have given to these people to their “Make Real Change” campaign.
My proposal is to augment that program. It’s all well and good to make donations via the village website, which gets channeled to the OPRF Chamber of Commerce as fiscal agent, and then the village “works with local nonprofit partners to use those funds to support unhoused people in Oak Park.”
First and foremost, I doubt that all of these people are unhoused (although, admittedly, they may not be in a preferred situation). And in a sense this process leaves out what I’m generically calling the “panhandler” as we silently walk by making a note to ourselves to make a donation to Make Real Change.
What I suggest is that the village, perhaps several villages together, make available for purchase a small pocket-sized card (my back pants pocket will fit an index card) with helpful resources listed like Housing Forward, Beyond Hunger, Thrive, maybe ECHO or whatever agencies the village determines to be the most appropriate. List the name, perhaps the focus (e.g., housing, food, mental health), address and phone number. Make one side English and the other side Spanish.
Make these available for purchase for $1 each, certainly at village hall. Perhaps we could purchase them in packs of 10 or 25 by mail for an additional fee.
Maybe the village could arrange with Pete’s and Jewel and Fresh Thyme to sell these cards like they sell yard waste stickers. The village can certainly deduct an administrative fee, but the balance should go to the agencies listed on the card. (And, as always, I volunteer my time to help administer this program so it doesn’t become a burden on village staff.)
That way, when I next chance upon individuals like the five I did today, I have something to give them other than nothing and other than money, which shows that I do care — me, the person standing in front of them right now.
Ron Elling
Oak Park