Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn Morrison.
Hi Shawn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My wife Jamie and I are ordained ministers with a heart for those who have been marginalized by difficult circumstances including those experiencing homelessness or suffering from situational and generational poverty.
Serving as pastors for a small church, we often felt a need for support to effectively connect with our community.
Good in the ‘Hood was created with this purpose in mind. We endeavored to bridge the gap and help foster a trust-based connection between the church and the community. Philosophically speaking, we didn’t want our church or any church to merely be “in” the community, rather, we felt inspired to do our best to be “for” the community as a practical demonstration of God’s love.
Kindness changes people for good and kind people change communities for good. When we envisioned Good in the ‘Hood, this was our primary objective. Simply make a difference by doing our part in creating a contagious momentum of kindness. Everything is better when people are kind to one another, and it becomes something that can go viral if we will let it.
We often are asked about the name Good in the ‘Hood. It’s a contraction of the phrase, “Good in the Neighborhood”. Rather than try and compete with the amazing legacy of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, we decided to go with the abbreviated version which includes an apostrophe prior to ‘Hood. Why you may ask is this apostrophe important? Because we want to be careful not to stigmatize our beloved communities with the slang version Hood, meaning “Ghetto”. For us, it is all about community and how we can be part of the good things that are taking place.
In the early days, we expressed kindness by offering or participating in several collaborative events. Our objective was to do “with” the community rather than merely doing “for” the community. Our initial kindness-based initiatives were simple outreaches that included hosting community barbecue events to bring people together, participating in community clean-up efforts, and providing hands-on assistance for those who were in the process of relocating and in dire need of a few strong arms to move the heavy items, and other similar volunteer engagement opportunities.
As our organization grew and continued to serve alongside the residents, we began identifying other ways for us to offer support to those around us. Hunger relief was an important community need that soon became evident. So many were struggling to make ends meet and they could not afford to put food on the table. To address this, we launched a modest 9-1-1 call to action. Providing 9 families, with 1 week’s worth of groceries, for 1 year (9-1-1). This lasted for only 1 month before we were serving 20 families. Within 3 months it was up to 50 families and within a few months, our 9-1-1 food program was serving nearly 500 families per month. This led us to consider hosting several more sites.
The question we had was, “How are we going to fund this”? Soon thereafter someone called and offered us a semi-load of winter clothing. We joyfully accepted this gift; however, we did not have a warehouse to store it. We ended up selling the clothing for $.15 per lb. It netted us over $3,000 for our food program which was a huge help when we had barely enough money to buy groceries for all these families. The CEO of the company that was purchasing the winter clothing owned a thrift store. He casually mentioned, “If you ever get shoes I would be happy to buy them. I can give you $.50 cents per pound for shoes”.
Although I am certainly not a mathematician, I knew enough to respond to this excellent fundraising opportunity. I quickly contacted my local partner’s church friends all over the area to ask them to do shoe drives for us. Eagle Brook Church jumped in and immediately gave us strong support. We knew we needed a catchy name to help inspire shoe drive collections. Being the shoes were intended to be sold to pay for groceries to support our rapidly growing food shelf we came up with the phrase, “Shoe Away Hunger”. This caught on like wildfire and resonated well with nearly everyone we encountered. Soon we had several other partners join us including highly regarded retailer, Schuler Shoes. This benevolent shoe retailer got behind us in several valuable ways including with the generous purchase of a bus to enable us to take the shoes to schools and shelters.
It was about this time; a mom and her daughter came to our food shelf to get groceries on an unusually cold and windy January evening. I noticed they did not have socks and they were only wearing flip-flops. It was an epiphany moment for me as I realized how desperate people were. They couldn’t afford groceries or even some of the essentials of life such as shoes and socks. I’m pleased to share that we were able to provide this mom and her daughter with a healthy supply of groceries, socks, shoes, and boots. For myself, the Shoe Away Hunger program now has a 2-fold purpose:
1. To meet the footwear needs of those who are unable to find affordable footwear for those children in schools, and for the unsheltered.
2. To provide much-needed dollars to buy groceries to meet the needs of our more than 30 pop-up grocery programs located throughout the twin cities.
Our service opportunities have continued to increase, and we have continued pivoting as we are able to provide basic resources and services with a touch of intentional kindness to the members of our community. Some of our programs and services include:
• Holiday Help Adopt-A-Family
• Wool socks and winter coat drives for the unsheltered
• Backpacks with school supplies for school-aged children
• Emergency food and resource packs for those experiencing homelessness.
We also began partnering with an outstanding organization, SoleCare for Souls. This wonderful ministry provides basic foot care for the unsheltered and for those who are unable to find affordable foot care. Each guest receives care for their feet including a foot soak, a foot massage, and care for ingrown toenails, foot fungus, warts, calluses, and other foot concerns. Everyone also is given a warm hug and the opportunity to receive personal prayer.
In 2020 SoleCare for Souls founder, Kathy Jo Bissen retired and for sustainability purposes, she requested Good in the ‘Hood to acquire SoleCare for Souls as a program of Good in the ‘Hood. We were very glad to comply with this kind request and it has been such a great fit to come alongside our Shoe Away Hunger program. Our new Program Manager, Londa Somers has been a perfect addition to our team.
We recently acquired a wonderful youth program, Side By Side, and the founder, Terry Munoz has become a key Good in the ‘Hood staff person serving as our Side By Side program director. Going forward we envision bringing Good in the ‘Hood to other metropolitan communities as a practical means of promoting and hopefully inspiring others to act each day with intentional kindness toward all those around them.
Our motto is, “Bringing HELP; Inspiring HOPE”.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Most organizations struggle with a lack of funding and the time constraints of being bi-vocational which inhibits the capacity for growth We have had these same struggles.
For years we operated Good in the ‘Hood on a part-time basis. We sometimes hired others to oversee certain components of the organization. While we continued to pastor full-time, we hired several excellent staff persons prior to my wife, Jamie, our Director of Operations/HR and I made the decision to serve full-time with Good in the ‘Hood in January 2020. This was difficult because we truly loved pastoring and our church family was dear to our hearts. This transition occurred only 3 months before COVID-19 became a global concern. Timing is such a valuable thing and we couldn’t have timed the transition better. We needed to be singularly focused as COVID-19 broke out and created all kinds of challenges. This included the need to quickly pivot and re-invent our processes for serving the community.
We’re all about kindness and COVID meant we could no longer give hugs or warm handshakes to our client guests or volunteer friends. We could no longer see the smiles on the faces of one another as we had masks covering our faces. Sadly we lost several volunteers due to health concerns and even death from COVID. Serving the community became more about curbside deliveries of groceries and resources rather than what we call “client-choice shopping”. We could no longer offer a customized approach. It was difficult emotionally to be so transactional which is a complete contrast to our typical approach. The social interaction and kind warmth our volunteers offer to our client guests, at times may be even more valuable than the actual resources we distribute. I’ve learned we should never underestimate the importance of each person’s emotional well-being.
Ultimately, we were able to push through the difficult times with resolute hearts and volunteers and staff who are truly amazing in their dedication to serving the community. It’s truly inspiring to be around such amazing people. As someone once said, “Volunteers are paid because they are priceless”. This is most definitely true. With their kind and dedicated support, we continue to grow and we are always exploring new ways to join the community in bringing solutions for our neighbors in need and to consistently “Be the Good in our ‘Hood”.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My wife, Jamie, and I are both ordained ministers. We have served in various ministerial capacities.
Prior to being full-time with Good in the ‘Hood Shawn served as the Senior Pastor for Cedarcrest Free Methodist Church, Forest Avenue Fellowship, and Living Branch Ministries. He was a 12-step ministry chaplain bringing support to those struggling to overcome substance abuse with Pine Shores and also with Eagle House Ministries. He worked as the Minneapolis Program Director for Union Gospel Mission, and as the Director of Outreach and Student Life for Bethany Global University, formerly Bethany College of Missions.
Jamie has served as a staff pastor for New Commandment Church, Forest Avenue Fellowship, Bloomington Christian Church, and Cedarcrest Free Methodist Church. She has also served as a Supervisor for B2B services with Comcast and as the Executive Publisher for Believer’s Press. Prior to joining Good in the ‘Hood full-time she launched her own business, “Books by the Bundle” a self-publishing service.
So many people are struggling with economic challenges, health concerns, relational discord, and other debilitating issues. Sadly, these neighbors in need not only lack the resources to overcome their circumstances and move forward, but they are also without any hope or the emotional strength to take the next step forward. Our greatest joy and what we love to do most is to come alongside these precious souls, who are all too often overlooked by society, and to offer them a sense of significance and personal dignity.
Our primary joy and purpose are to make certain that no one is treated as anyone, rather everyone is treated like someone. Good in the ‘Hood is the embodiment of this as we work together to bring help and inspire hope with a practical expression of intentional kindness to each one and to everyone.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
What some might find surprising about us is we have many, many grandchildren and we’re so very grateful for each one.
We have 5 children, and we’re grandparents with our 17th and 18th grandchild on the way. We often say our children must be rabbits.
Nearly 16 years ago, one of our children and his wife, had Minnesota’s only set of sextuplets and the 14th set of sextuplets ever born in the United States. They were born just a few minutes shy of 23 weeks. At the time most medical experts didn’t think any of them could survive.
All 6 entered the world alive; however, over the course of 7 weeks, we sadly lost 5 of our beloved grandchildren. It was heartbreaking and somewhat devastating. We’re very grateful that one of these precious children survived. He is our miracle grandson and he is now nearly 16 years old.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.goodinthehood.org
- Instagram: https://web.facebook.com/goodinthehood/?_rdc=1&_rdr
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@goodinthehood7327
