Spotlight …CALLEDOUT

Joyce Ingram, CEO, CALLEDOUT

CalledOut was developed around three or four years ago, an action taken while I worked as an in-home counselor working with inner city at-risk youths and their families. That position gave me an up and close look at the overwhelming weight of stress, abuse, despair and hopelessness shouldered by individuals unequipped to bear the load with no support system in place. When a client has an situation that dictates emergency services such as temporary shelter or food, the immediate resources are Red Cross and First Response, who comes to their aid with support. Unfortunately, with declining monetary donations due to a slumping economy, many times Red Cross and First Response are unable to help, and instead make referrals to the local church. Calling or running to random chosen churches in hopes of reaching someone who can help can become a daunting task. Depending on the day or time, the church may be closed or resources are unavailable, and your efforts are void of results leaving the counselor and client at square one. Action My first idea was to create a comprehensive resource database of all the resources available in the Hampton Roads, posted on the world wide web readily available for quick accessibility. Then I took the steps to get a website developed and started collecting resource information. But I didn’t stop there. Another ill in society that I became aware of, that ties into the resource guide, is the disconnect within families, and between neighbors and communities. It really amazed me to see a family evicted from their residence, along with their belongings tossed out into the streets and no one extends a helping hand to help, but instead look the other way. This not only takes place in inner cities but also in suburbia as well. This kind of removed existence can only take place when the value for relationships has been forsaken and an immersion of issues of life has taken priority. So I took the website a step further by adding general information on topics relating women. I decided to start off with women since I’m too am a woman, and know what concerns we deal with on a day to day basis. Besides posting articles, I decided to find women who didn’t mind sharing their story of overcoming challenges or dealing with this thing we call “life” by maintaining a blog on the site. The way I found my bloggers was through FB and family. Just by reading their daily posts on FB, I sensed a connection and felt their story would enhance CalledOut’s mission. After speaking with them individually, I knew that God had placed us in each other’s path for this very reason. Their posts are assets to the site and the response from the community has been tremendous. Each day is a new challenge and opportunity to make an impact on the lives of women in the Hampton Roads area and across the country, and I don’t take that lightly. I know that this is an assignment from the Lord, and I won’t stop until the job is complete. Once we’ve reached a comfortable level of members in Hampton Roads, we will begin our next phase of implementing a few social programs for women as well as men. Those programs will serve as a blueprint that we’ll take to cities across the nation and build and establish women and men, together as they should be. We have a lot of work ahead of us but in due season it will come to pass. Right now, our needs are great. We need volunteers between the ages of 14-45, to serve as administrators, reporters, writers. If anyone is interested in filling one of these positions, please contact me at joyce@calledout.us .

- Joyce Ingram