In 2008 Yvonne Nair locked eyes with a homeless man just before he took a long swill from a bottle deep inside a paper bag.
“He had such sadness in his eyes,” Nair told the Contra Costa Times. “I thought about him all night, and I decided I knew what I had to do.”
She took $25,000 from her retirement account and started Saffron Strand, Inc. to provide training and mental health support aimed at healing the trauma and returning the homeless to the workforce.
More than 200 people have been registered in Saffron Strand’s program in Richmond. According to Nair, about half have gotten jobs and kept them for at least two years.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story in the Contra Costa Times)
Calif. Homeless Service Restores Dignity With Work and Volunteerism:
The person in the photo is not Yvonne Nair, the award winner. It is Ana Cortez from the City of Richmond. I think this was published by mistake.
We dd not specify who was in the photo. The photo was on their webpage as an illustration for one of their seminars where people are counseled about finding a job.