Extending Friendship to the Friendship Home
The Friendship Home started in Lincoln in 1978 as a shelter for women and children to stay when they came to visit loved ones in prison or in the hospital. The nuns staffing the shelter quickly found that most of their clients were victims of domestic violence- patterns of assault, threats, and coercive behaviors meant to assert power and control. They soon changed gears to better suit the community’s needs. Now, Friendship Home strives to serve as a support, shelter, and advocate for survivors of domestic violence and their children. What started as one shelter has grown to include multiple group shelters, transitional housing, and single family shelters.
There are shelters around town for immediate need, but Friendship Home also provides transitional housing to families as they move out of shelters and towards independence. Oftentimes these homes are undecorated, representative of a clean slate for these families, but also a sign of hope for a new future.
In February, Lincoln TeamMates mentors and mentees teamed up with the Friendship Home to offer even more hope to these families. Matches created a photo holder to be given to residents at their time of move-in. Each photo holder was totally unique. To create something beautiful, matches used scrapbook paper, beads, washi tape, stickers, and so much more. A picture will be placed in the clip eventually, but for now, matches created a note of hope and inspiration to encourage these families to keep fighting. In total, nearly 90 photo holders were made to be gifted to transitional living families.
To watch a video of the project, please visit Lincoln TeamMates on social media!