Echo Breaks New Ground
Growing up in the Midwest, homelessness was something I never seemed to notice. Housing was cheap and fairly abundant and the weather was not as conducive to living outdoors. When I first moved to the West Coast I lived in San Francisco, specifically in the Haight-Ashberry district “You’re not in Kansas anymore, or in my case Ohio”. Moving here was a radical change which I welcomed during this time of my life, but what struck me like a lightning bolt was the number of people living on the streets. I had a hard top Jeep Wrangler that was easy to break into and served as a bedroom for the unhoused many a night. I remember my first Thanksgiving in the city with the huge focus on feeding the homeless on this night of abundance, and this was back in the late ‘90’s - I thought “what about the other 364 nights”.
As time went on I began to become fairly immune to the numbers of folks unhoused and it just became a part of life in the City. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco I visited San Diego for the first time and remember the first time I visited Horton Plaza with dozens if not hundreds of homeless folks congregating and living in the center of downtown, which was a total shock. I was told that the weather in San Diego was the draw which made sense, but still was tough to see. Again, as time went on it became easier to just not think about these problems and live life.
As I started to travel to Italy and the warmer places like Sicily what struck me was the lack of homeless people in such a temperate climate. While I know there are some problems in Italy, and I have seen a few homeless folks in Rome, communities tend to take care of their own to a better extent than we often do here. I, myself have been guilty of becoming immune to these things over time, overlooking the homeless, or worse yet spending time complaining while not doing anything to help. If you have energy to complain, you have just as much energy to help.
Etto has always been community minded as part of our mission, but lately we’ve begun to work more closely with Echo providing weekly lunch, I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about their organization. What I've discovered is that we have something very special happening here. Echo is just twenty five years old and has become such a positive force for change in our local community by helping folks go from unhoused to in housing and working rather quickly. The organization and employees are wonderful, but what truly makes Echo work is all the efforts of hundreds of regular folks in our community helping too.Various groups come together to help cook and feed folks at Echo on a daily basis and even stay over at night. Also, local business organizations and individuals open up their checkbooks to help fund the programs to make Echo work.
Homelessness is a very complex problem and our county with its temperate weather and a high cost of living makes this situation quite tenuous. According to sources 1 out of 10 children in SLO County are facing potential homelessness risks right now. Families with children on the streets are becoming more of a concern here and Echo is building a new Family Resource Center to help this situation on their Atascadero campus with the ground breaking of this new building next Monday.
Glimmers of hope abound as Echo has been very successful in helping get folks unhoused off the streets and into permanent housing. This year alone they have transitioned over 300 people into housing at success rates over 5 times the state average. Our community should be very proud of this accomplishment and all we do to help.
If you want to join us, here’s what you can do to help.
On Wednesday, October 8th Etto will be hosting an event where we will be making our contribution from our Monday October 6th "Day of Giving" to Echo. If you would like to join us on the 8th to learn more about Echo and make a financial contribution in person, or just learn about volunteer opportunities please respond to this email. We will have a few bites from the restaurant and some Etto wine on our patio. Please RSVP, the event is from 5:30 - 7PM and space is limited. If you would like to attend please let me know how many will be in your party. We look forward to welcoming some of you next Wednesday where you can learn how you can help transform lives.
You can also make a contribution to Echo here:
The other way you can help is by simply visiting Etto Market or Etto Pasta Bar on Monday, October 6th as we will be donating 10% of all sales to celebrate the groundbreaking of Echo's new Family Resource Center which will be happening on that same Monday. This facility will provide new private family rooms and a workforce development center among other service areas to assist local families and get them back on their feet, in the workforce and into permanent housing.
