Partnering With Local Shelter to Help Women Rebuild Their Lives

Pictured L to R

Chris Green, Executive Director Denise Britton,

 Board Chair La-Kita Gilmore, and Carol Green

Pennsylvania, USA ----Community Life Coaches, Chris and Carol Green were part of a special gathering of community partners and volunteers who were acknowledged at a Recognition Reception hosted by the Shalom House Women’s Shelter.

“When I first met Chris and Carol and learned of the work that they do, I knew they could have a significant positive impact on the lives of the residents we serve at Shalom House,“ says Executive Director of the shelter, Denise Britton. 

“Without hesitation, they jumped in to begin engaging the residents and furthering the potential of turning an experience of homelessness and often hopelessness into hope and possibility. Further, they committed to helping us raise the bar of effectiveness for our staff, offering their coaching expertise (and encouragement) in regular staff training sessions. Our gratitude is unending.”

The Urban Community Ambassadors were merged into the Shelter's calendar to provide life coaching support for both the staff and residents of this special outreach situated in one of the most challenging  high-crime neighborhoods in the City of Harrisburg.

“We’re just following the Golden Rule mandate that tells us that we must treat others the way we want to be treated,” says Carol Green who leads the staff coaching sessions.

“The location of an urban community outreach should never deter you from the mission to lift all of humanity. The women and children that come to the shelter have been through incredible trauma. The Shalom House staff is to be commended for the outstanding work they do in guiding the residents to a place where they are ready to receive life coaching from us.”

Chris and Carol Green became part of the Shelter’s strategy to transition the residents out the shelter and back into everyday life. Their coaching tools proved to be vital in enhancing the resident’s life coping skills; enabling them to take confident steps toward rebuilding their families and recapturing their lives.

As the world's leading producers of CARE-Ready Life Coaches™, Chris and Carol Green teach and train community, government and education leaders, human service organizers, business visionaries, and neighborhood dreamers how to be much more effective by embracing the principles of CARE (Compassionate Accountability with Respect and Empathy) in their professional and personal lives. They LISTEN to people, LIFT people and LAUNCH people. Then they equip and empower them to do the same for others.

Many coaching, mentoring and community outreach programs employ what is known as a "deficit model" of working with people. That's where you focus on the problems (deficits) of a person, and then apply a set of pre-determined, cookie cutter steps and treatments to address their issues. The deficit-based model is what many well-meaning Helpers use, but it rarely works long-term, leaving Helpers wondering why their clients fail to break the cycles of addiction and recidivism.

However, CARE-Ready Life Coaching™ mirrors the principles found in the proven, Best Practice strategies of Strength-based, Solution-focused models. CARE-Ready life coaches are trained to connect with people in order to build a relationship/ partnership that empowers the client; thus allowing the client to discover the solutions that will work best for them.

Also, while many coaching programs focus on how to target potential high-paying affluent clients, and high-paying speaking opportunities, the Greens train, equip and empower Care-Ready Providers and Coaches™, who are willing to take on the most often overlooked people of society; those who live in under-served communities, who can least afford, but benefit the most from professional guidance.

If you want to be trained and empowered to coach or mentor with a purpose that's greater than yourself, EXPLORE THAT POSSIBILITY at https://www.candcconnections.com/responder-training



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What is a Christian?

...And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.   ---Acts 11:26b

As most of you know, we are ministering on the front lines in Harrisburg as community life coaches. God has been using this aspect of our ministry to provide practical tools for people who are trying to rebuild their lives in the midst of great devastation. Part of that recovery process involves helping them to work through the pain of the past and begin making plans for the future.

As we have coached our clients, worked with professionals, consulted with heterosexual couples, and had impromptu conversations with a gay couple, we have been astounded by a very negative theme that has been at the core of nearly every encounter; and that has been people's understanding of what it means to be a Christian.

Before I go any further, I need to ask you to intentionally lay aside all feelings of offense and don't get defensive about what I'm about to tell you. This is more of an informal survey and an observation, but it is extremely important if we are going to be serious about reaching people today.

From what people have expressed to us, these are their definitions of the word Christian, at least according to what they all have experienced first-hand, primarily from family members, co-workers, classmates and various professionals.

Christian: Someone who abuses you physically, sexually, mentally and emotionally, and then stands in a pulpit and preaches about love.

Christian: Someone who hates Blacks, Latinos and Asians, and then preaches about love on Sunday morning.

Christian: Someone who is vindictive, cruel, unloving, and vengeful, but they attend their church every week, participating in its many activities and events.

Christian: A religious group who slaughtered the natives of this land, brought in slaves, and use big business and politics to continue to promote their way of life.

Christian: Dominating, imperialistic people who have an agenda to force everyone into their way of thinking and living.

Christian: Evangelical, right wing, conservative, Tea Party, racist, KKK, Bible quoting, hypocrites.

Christian: African American pastors who impregnate young girls in their churches, force them to get abortions, manipulate people to give money, and do nothing but grandstand in the public to draw attention to themselves.

Christian: Gullible congregants who continue to follow and support corrupt church leaders and will defend those leaders, no matter what. 

Christian: African American congregants who live out nothing that they profess. They are often the worst employees, and the most unreliable business people.

Christian: Someone who buries all of the family secrets with religious talk. They never talk about their own dirt and never explain themselves. They never answer real questions and shun anyone who is not perfect like they pretend to be.

Christian: Fake people, phony people, liars, and hypocrites.

This is just a small sampling of the type of descriptions that have invaded our conversations. Ever since God led us to the front lines of Harrisburg, we have been brought face to face with where people REALLY are in their thinking and beliefs. 

We realize there are some people who are just looking for excuses to live any way they choose, but these descriptions came up in the midst of conversations about past trauma, NOT religious debates. After many of our coaching sessions and private conversations, we could only sigh and say, "No wonder people don't come to our churches anymore."

We even found opposition to our Life Coaching because of this misconception. One young lady cancelled several appointments with us because her abusive, religious mother has the same title of Life Coach within the church she attends. So this young woman thought our coaching was going to be like her mother's coaching.  When this came out in our session we told her, "Life Coaching is not about dictating to people and doing things to try to run another person's life." She was so relieved to find out that we were not like her religious, mean, unloving, and hypocritical mother.

The challenge is quite daunting as we work past decades and centuries of a type of Christianity that was never of God. But people don't know that, so we are out there showing who Jesus (Yeshua) Christ really is. 

We encourage you to take on the challenge as well. Instead of merely proclaiming that you're a Christian, just show them the true love of Jesus.  Personally, when asked, I find myself telling people that I follow The Way, which is what this new move of God was called before Believers were given the name, Christians in the city of Antioch. 

"But this I confess to you, that according to THE WAY, which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets." ----Acts 24:14

• 
  
• I find this description disarms their prejudices and makes them a little bit more curious.

During the last century, the word Christian has developed a very different meaning. In this century, for the most part, in the understanding of many, if not most people, a Christian has very little to do with Christ. I used to get very upset with that conflicting reality, but now, I no longer fight it. We don't have time to waste, trying to change everyone's personal definition of what it means to be a Christian. 

However, we can work and live to change their understanding of Christ Himself. On the front lines of this battle, that's what we are doing with greater success every day.

For the least of these, 

Coach Chris Green 

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