It has been two years since Twende teamed up with Portland Rescue Mission to install nearly 300 solar panels on the roof of their Shepard’s Door facility. Shepard’s Door serves as a community for women and children affected by homelessness, addiction, and abuse. Mike Deckon resides as the director of marketing for Shepard’s door and has been able to witness firsthand the impact of the solar install on the staff, volunteers, donors, program participants, and operational costs.
Mike explains how Shepard’s Door is completely donor funded and how every single penny saved through solar counts. Every month, Shepard’s door is saving about $1,000 that would have otherwise gone to the utility bill but now is being reallocated towards offering more services. Shepard’s door is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year and all services are available to people in need free of charge. Some of the services offered include providing meals, providing shelter, short term programs for transition off the streets, and longer-term programs that include vocational job training, parenting classes, and addiction recovery. Mike explains how being able to offer these services allows for the opportunity to build deeper relationships with more people and create community, the mechanism for true healing.
Mike shares how one of his favorite parts of the Twende installation was seeing 150 volunteers from various backgrounds coming together, sharing tips, talking shop, and eating lunch together all in the name of helping people in need make better lives for themselves. He notes as well how before beginning the physical install, Twende volunteers took the time to meet with all the program participants and staff and give them an overview of what solar power is, what it can do, and how it was going to impact them. Program participants were able to put on a harness and take to the roof to assistant during the install. Mike notes how you could tell they were nervous at first but then the nervousness turned into excitement and then into a sense of accomplishment. One program participant who spent a lot of time on the solar installation started an internship with one of the solar companies she had worked with that day after graduating her Shepard’s door program.
The Twende install at Shepard’s door is a beautiful example of the power behind neighbors helping neighbors. Going solar is a choice has a multitude of benefits, from the ability to reallocate saved money into programs, to healing our hurting earth, to inspiring someone into a new job. Solar is a gift that keeps giving and is helping Portland Rescue Mission to meet more people, hear their stories, know their names, and provide hope and support to those working to rebuild their lives.
