Handle with care

February 2024 Newsletter

If you’ve ever held up a box at your local grocery store or maybe you got a package delivered to the doorstep, you’ll see lots of instructions on the side.

“Handle with care”. “Refrigerate after opening”. “Best before…”. The point of these simple messages is to help you understand how to treat or interact with whatever might be inside. 

Wouldn’t it be great if people came with instructions that? The closest we come as people to having those kinds of ‘instructions’ is either bumper stickers, occasionally tattoos, or, the best option, using our voice and our words to tell people how we want to be treated.

But, in situations where someone has experienced or is experiencing a trauma, they don’t always want to open up. So, if you’re in the 'business' of human dignity as we are, how do you help someone when you don’t know what they need? 

You start by treating each person as an individual, with their own set of ‘instructions’ – sorry, no mass market grocery store packaging option. You spend time with them, get to know them, and understand how they best learn, how they receive love, and where they feel they need support (which isn't always the same as where they actually need support!).

Time builds trust, and trust builds relationships. That is at the core of everything we do and what we offer. In our programming – whether it’s vocational retraining or housing or food – people who feel they may have been overlooked, forgotten, or written off are reminded that they are more than what might be written or said about them ‘on the outside’.  

To borrow a quote from Pope Francis, “People have a dignity that is priceless." Thank you for your continued support of our work to restore hope and dignity in our communities. 

 
Travis Blackmore
Founder and CEO
Lionhearts Inc.

P.S. Driving that point home, here's a recent story from our Kingston Adelaide shelter.