Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Cohen.
Hi Megan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was homeless in California, Michigan, Florida and most recently the Kensington section of Philadelphia. For years, I had struggled with addiction leading me to a vicious cycle of incarceration, homelessness and countless rehab stints. In July of 2019, through what I refer to as my “God moments”, I was finally led into recovery. At this point, I knew I was going to have to do absolutely everything suggested to me to actually stay sober for the first time since my addiction had started. I dove fully into my treatment and something started happening, I started changing. I was becoming a better person and cleaning up the wreckage from my past while making sure I did nothing to add anymore. At around a year sober, I was managing a recovery house and back in school. It was at this time that The Grace Project had started. Me and my mom were going to head out to Kensington to distribute food to the homeless so I decided to make a post on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to join. The post took off and in less than 48 hours it had tons of comments and reshares and I had messages pouring in.
When I saw how many people wanted to get involved, my vision grew. I knew that we could do so much more with the help of others. There is always power in numbers. I wanted to be able to continue to help those homeless in the areas I had once been homeless, but I also wanted to do more. I wanted to be able to help children and adults who were face hopelessness due to poverty, addiction, or sickness. We made our outreach trips a weekly occurrence. We started bringing out food, clothing, hygiene and first aid supplies. We then kicked off two more programs within our first year, our Give A “Little” Hope program and our Hope for the Holidays program. Give a “Little” Hope was designed solely for children impacted by sickness, poverty, or addiction. We take nominations and select from a hat at random. We then tailor a whole day specifically to the child’s interests. We stay in contact with the children and families following these trips and plan to start doing group events once or twice a year with all of them. Hope for the Holidays is also nomination-based. Last year we were able to give six families, totaling 23 children a memorable holiday season. We ask for wish lists from each family for the children the order what we can wrap and hand-deliver the gifts with a gift card for a grocery store so they can get a holiday meal.
Some days working full time, being in school, and being active in my recovery all while running a nonprofit can seem like a lot, but I remind myself how lucky I am to be able to do what I do. I make sure that I achieve at least one small goal a day to continue moving myself and The Grace Project forward. When I get discouraged, I just remind myself of where I started and how far we’ve come. Sometimes, it’s tough, but it always works out in the end as long as I put my best effort forward.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. I had no plans of starting a nonprofit when it happened, so I truly had no clue what I was doing. There was a lot of research that went into it and a lot of barriers. Having the schedule I now have also makes it really hard to divide my time up effectively between all of my responsibilities. Like I said before, sometimes I feel discouraged. Usually this is a result of stressing about donations and being able to fund our programs. Sometimes it’s just simply because I feel like I can’t find the time to put into things we need done like currently trying to plan a fundraiser. It’s really important to fight through these feelings though and not let them become barriers.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am employed full-time, a student at purdue global, and the founder/president of The Grace Project, so I’ll tell you a bit about each!
Work- I am employed full-time as a community outreach assistant for a drug/alcohol rehabilitation center. I help maintain relationships on the business end, help with admissions and also work with our clients through running groups. I am most proud of the relationships I am able to form with clients along with the fact that I am able to place people in treatment.
School- I am in school for business at purdue global. I am most proud that despite all I have going on, I still maintain a 4.0 GPA!
The Grace Project- The Grace Project is truly my heart and soul. Our mission is restoring hope through acts of kindness. I am no stranger to hopelessness and finding the will to fight through it. My turning point came as a result of strangers showing me kindness and it gave me the push I needed to keep fighting and turn things around, I want us to be able to recreate this for others struggling with similar feelings. We are very hands-on. The relationships we’ve been able to form with families and individuals through our programs are absolutely beautiful. We take pride in how we treat them and the fact that we continue to stay accessible no matter how much we have going on.
Any big plans?
We have so many plans! We want to continue to grow the three programs we have along with adding a couple more to be able to reach more people. We are hoping to be able to get a physical location to work out of within the next year or two because right now, we do it all from home and the streets! We also want to continue to open locations throughout the US. Getting a lot and some trailers to distribute food from and allow people to shower and clean up would also be ideal in any areas we distribute in. This could help us to cut back on adding trash to the areas. Right now, we sweep up sections after we finish handing items out, but with a specific location, it would make it so much easier and more efficient to do what we do. We would also like to start some community events for the kids in these areas so again, having a location stationed there would be ideal.
Pricing:
- Give a “Little” Hope days are typically $2000 to cover the whole day
- $100 can feed about 200 people on our weekly trips
- $300 sponsors a family of 4 for the holidays
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.teamgraceproject.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.grace.project.pa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhiladelphiaGRACE/
