Julia Brown-Allen, graduate coordinator in the biology department at 窪蹋勛圖厙, is also Pastor Julia Brown-Allen, a founder of Clevelands Integrated Faith Assembly, who has reached out into the streets and shelters to help homeless and battered women and their children for more than 20 years.
Brown-Allen received a surprise visit earlier this week from Wayne Dawson, Fox8 news anchor, and R. A. Vernon, founder and senior pastor of The Word Church, to feature her on a segment of Pay it Forward, which honors unsung community heroes. They presented a stunned Brown-Allen with $500.
She doesnt even realize all the impact shes making, said Brenda Haddon, a lifelong supporter who nominated Brown-Allen. Things we take for granted, these people dont have存he has really made it happen for them.
What began as a one-time Christmas donation of toiletries to a local womens shelter turned into a weekly programled by Brown-Allensupplying the women with basic necessities, the skills to interview for and hold a job, life skills, furniture and places to live. Her program has expanded to reach teens and men in area shelters.
It means a lot to me when they return to society, she said.
Brown-Allen feels a calling to minister to the homeless, but praises donors and volunteers who fund the efforts and provide goods and services, including those at the university. She calls the help shes received from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences instrumental. Several years ago, the information technology department gave her 20 computers, which she used to train homeless women from all over the city.
Without new skill sets, theyll be back out there homeless again, Brown-Allen said.
The population that sleeps in boxes and under bridges and fills the shelters has changed from mostly those with drug and alcohol problems to those put on the street when institutions closed, to working people who lost jobs in the current recession. But Brown-Allen has remained steadfast in her reach.
She puts forth so much effort to do something on top of all the work she does here at the universityits inspiring, said Laurie Dudik, managing engineer at the Electronics Design Center and a longtime donor and fundraiser for the womens program. She makes you feel good about helping in any way you can.
And Brown-Allen reciprocates. When she learned Dudik was collecting used towels, blankets and sheets for an animal rescue shelter, Brown-Allen contributed 100 sheets to the cause, filling Dudiks car.
The Fox8 segment aired Thursday during the 6:30 p.m. news and again will air during the 6:30 a.m. news Friday, the 6:30 p.m. news Saturday, Sunday between 7 and 9 a.m., and Monday at noon, or it can be viewed .
