Janine McDonald, has been engaged to provide executive coaching and strategic planning for Grandma’s House of Hope in affiliation with the Volunteer Center of Orange County.\n\nA Federal grant from the Strengthening Communities Fund made possible through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)  will provide capacity building to local community and faith-based organizations through customized workshops, one-on-one technical assistance, learning groups and financial assistance. The Orange County Capacity Building Program  is designed to increase an organization’s ability to provide workforce, job readiness and support services to low-income families and individuals.\n\nGrandma’s House of Hope (GHH), founded by Je’net Kreitner, is a non-profit organization that is seeking to take on the needs of homelessness, child hunger, domestic issues, senior negligence, and many other issues in Orange County. GHH has three distinct programs that tackles more specific needs for children, women, and seniors.\n\n\nNana’s Kidz is a program that works to provide food for homeless children who don’t have access to meals outside of the school cafeteria. Many children don’t have any way of eating meals on weekends and during the summer. At times, children will go several days without food and this is a need that GHH is committing to meet. In 2009, GHH committed to provide over 70,840 meals to hungry children and currently have a waiting list with over 800 children on it.\n\nAnother great program that GHH is currently running is the Grandma’s House Transitional Living Shelter that is “standing in the gap for women who have trouble finding placement in other programs.” It is a two year program that puts the focus on the individual women and personal growth instead of the issue. This may sound backwards but GHH believes that as the individual grows, the issues will fall by the wayside. The program caters to women who come from backgrounds in domestic violence, homelessness, addiction and recovery, mental health, physical disabilities, and human trafficking. The program teaches respect and tolerance and spiritual strength is built with group counseling, Bible studies, and other various life skills building activities.\n\nGHH’s third and final program is directed towards honoring seniors and remembering their legacy, Grandma’s Room. “A cheerful visit from the girls in the program benefits all.” The goal of the program simply is to bless seniors in any way possible. Seniors are visited and are treated to afternoon tea, reading and prayer, and a mini make-over. Little things like new slippers, gowns, or flowers for her birthday are all ways that the seniors can be shown that they are truly appreciated.\n\nJe’net Kreitner is the founder of GHH and a key point that she wants to get across is that they are teaching the women in their program to be servants and to look beyond their own needs and meet the needs of others. This is a fantastic philosophy as it breeds the same kindness that is being shown to them. Once the “servant’s heart” is instilled, the program comes full circle with people serving people and teaching and equipping them to serve others, just as they have been served.\n\nIf you’d like to help or contribute in any way, follow the link here: How You Can Help