Shower of Hope: Six for Six LA Campaign
The homeless service non-profit The Shower of Hope, which is part of the bigger End Homelessness CA umbrella, has kickstarted the month of December which encourages people to get moving into action as they introduce a new initiative to house six female community college students in the LA area. For background, in September of this year we opened a house in Rosemead to male students attending East Los Angeles College. This program is not just housing, like the one housing situation will be for women, The Shower of Hope will not only offer housing but mental health services, case management, weekly wellness coaching, meal resources, all furniture needs from beds to bedding, wi-fi access and much more.
It’s important to note that with this new initiative, especially since it will target unhoused women, offers a much needed space safe from assault, rape and other violence unhoused women routinely face. The goal is to house at least 6 women, ages 18 to 26 and give them the tools and hope to succeed in pursuing their education. The Shower of Hope is calling this challenge the SIX for SIX LA Challenge and hope to raise $60,000. http://sixforsixla.org
What is the SIX for SIX LA Challenge: You make a simple selfie video on your phone (or have a friend record it) of doing 6 Push Ups, Nominate 6 friends to do the challenge and donate $6. You can choose to do kneeling push ups, squats or if unable just do the video and ask people to do the donate. Keep the videos simple — The goal is to make sure it’s easy for people to do.
Mel Tillekeratne, the founder of The Shower of Hope, had the following to say, “Rising housing costs are sending thousands of college age kids into homelessness. Worse yet, many are forced to defer their dreams of a higher education for part time jobs that leave them perpetually on the brink of homelessness.
While the students from affluent or middle income families can retreat into suburbia, urban students, vastly Black and Brown are forced to jump from couch to couch or sleep in their cars. With Covid came a different hurdle. Before you could attend a physical classroom and even access free meals, food pantries and showers on campus but now most of these poor kids are struggling to pay for a pay as you go phone and have no chance of accessing online school. The Hope Housing for Students 2nd home which will be for young women will not only provide housing, internet access, meals and mental health services but more importantly protect these women from violence and rape that so many young homeless women are victims of every day!”
Here is a sample script that people are being asked to use in the Six for Six LA Challenge:
“Hi Everyone, I’m doing the Six for Six LA Challenge!
We all know LA is facing a huge homelessness crisis. Among those facing homelessness are young women going to community college. These women face severe hardships not to mention the threat of violence and rape every day. The goal of the Six for Six Challenge is I’m going to do 6 push ups, donate 6 dollars and nominate YOU, 6 of my friends to do the same. Hope Housing for Students is looking to raise $60,000 to house 6 young women in 2021. The housing comes with mental health services, wellness coaching, meals, and everything else these women will need to succeed in school and be the next generation of leaders!
And If we exceed the goal, Hope Housing for Students will simply house more women going to community college in LA!
Donate at SixforSixLA.org or through Facebook at
End script”
Since this is to house women, we suggest you nominate mostly women for the challenge. Don’t worry too much about the script. Just post the script in the video title on Facebook and Instagram. Make sure to use the hashtags #SixForSixLA #6for6LA #TheShowerOfHope
This is a very interactive challenge that will encourage supporters to not only donate but also challenge themselves and others to physically take action for our homeless community during COVID-19 quarantine. As someone who not only worked for The Shower of Hope but has been homeless myself, it’s very important to highlight this challenge and the need to protect homeless women from the countless number of predators and dangers they face in the homeless community.
If you have a chance! Please like, share and do this challenge yourself and then send it to your friends! Only together will we address the ever looming threat which is the homeless issue in Los Angeles until we get some seriously affordable housing options and reform on the whole concept of housing in general. Housing is a human right. Everyone deserves that right and thank you to the Shower of Hope for starting a campaign that takes a unique approach of finding solutions.
