A Letter from Executive Director, Wes Tillett
Can You Imagine Being in Someone Else’s Shoes?
The roots of EMPATHY lie in our ability to imagine ourselves in someone else’s shoes. I invite you to jump into the shoes of a few people in our Greater Lafayette community for a moment.
Imagine receiving the news that your child is being diagnosed with cancer. This news then requires you to give up your current job so that you can spend all of your time and energy attending to your child’s medical needs and appointments. Then comes the double-whammy of enormous medical expenses and greatly reduced income. After all of this, imagine falling behind on rent and reaching out to LUM for some financial assistance in order to stay securely housed.
For more than one family in Greater Lafayette right now, no imagination is needed – this is reality.
EMPATHY requires imagination. Jesus taught “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This necessitates some ability to envision how we would like to be treated and then translate that into how we treat the person right in front of us. I imagine if I were in a financial crisis, I would want someone to listen to me and offer practical help. My guess is that you have listened well and offered practical help in the past by making a contribution to LUM, and maybe specifically to the LUM Good Samaritan Fund. Thank you for your empathy. On behalf of the many people in our community who receive hope and help through your kindness, thank you in advance for whatever you can contribute today to continue to assist our neighbors in need.
In 50 years of serving low-income households in Greater Lafayette, LUM has learned that even modest financial assistance can have a dramatic, positive impact on families.
In the past 10 years, LUM has distributed more than $1.2 million in emergency financial assistance to 5,030 families in 21,248 separate client visits. Any given client could receive a maximum of $200 each year. In the past decade, the average client only visited three times. Clearly, the LUM Good Samaritan Fund is not creating financial dependence on LUM but instead is giving an empowering hand of hope to people in the midst of their own financial crises. The impact is life-altering.
Would you please consider giving $50, $100, $250, $500, or $1,000 to the LUM Good Samaritan Fund, to ensure that LUM can continue to offer this critical social safety net to our neighbors in need?