LifeWorks Spotlight: Steve Bewsey

These days, it is rare to see an employee stay with a company for 18 months, let alone 18 years.  But LifeWorks Director of Housing and Homelessness, Steve Bewsey, has found a love for the work that he does and has dedicated 18 years of his life to the LifeWorks cause.

Steve’s commitment to LifeWorks started when he met COO Mitch Weynand at a conference. ”I found out about Middle Earth [the organization that would later become LifeWorks] from Mitch, and I decided that I wanted to work for him,” says Steve.  After seeing an advertisement for a job at Middle Earth in the newspaper, Steve applied, but he didn’t get the job. He would apply for five jobs with the organization before being hired. “One day there was an advertisement in the paper for a part-time volunteer coordinator, so I called up again and convinced them that I could do the job,” remembers Steve. After working as the volunteer coordinator for four months, he was promoted to shelter director.

Steve now oversees the various housing programs within LifeWorks, including the Emergency Shelter, Transitional Living, Supportive Housing, and Street Outreach programs. “The important thing about my work is I get to do what I enjoy,” says Steve. 

Around the LifeWorks office, Steve is known as “Santa Claus” because of his long white beard, and it is a name he takes seriously around the holidays.  Every year around Christmas, he dresses up as Santa Claus to help raise donations for the housing programs.

Outside of work, Steve loves to walk. “I walk about 3o miles every week, and I’ve walked a marathon before.”  He also loves to keep house and cook for his lovely bride with whom he has fostered more than 50 children over a period of 11 years.  Perhaps Steve’s most memorable foster children were five siblings, ages 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. “Their mom just walked away from them one day. At first they didn’t want to have anything to do with me, but about two weeks later I went from being ’old man’ to ‘papa,’” says Steve. Although he has not kept in touch with all the children he and his wife have fostered, he has seen several of his former foster children go into the military or go on to have careers in management.

Today, Steve continues to serve as an inspiration to many in LifeWorks and the community. For anyone who is not familiar with LifeWorks, he wants them to know that “it is the only place where an adolescent can walk into eight different locations and get immediate assistance. There’s no other place like that in town.”

LEAP Happy Hour at El Arroyo

LEAP is hosting a happy hour at the Original El Arroyo on Thursday, May 14th at 6:00 p.m.

Join us for discounted cocktails and appetizers while learning more about how you can help LifeWorks. More details about our upcoming White Party will also be available.

Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to network and join a great young executives and professionals group. Current LEAP members will receive a free drink ticket. As always, please bring your friends!

The Original El Arroyo is located at 1624 W. 5th Street. Extra parking is available in the garage across the street behind Mean Eyed Cat.

For more information, contact Brett Barnes at 512.735.2470 or brett.barnes@lifeworksweb.org.

Kendra Scott Jewelry Sample Sale Benefiting LifeWorks

Kendra Scott will be hosting a Jewelry Sample Sale from Thursday, April 30th through Saturday, May 2nd at Kendra Scott studio in the Penn Field Design Center (located at 3601 S. Congress Ave., Suite B201).

Check out the hottest jewelry, while doing some good. A portion of the proceeds raised during the event will go to benefit LifeWorks.

Dates and times for the event are as follows:

• Thursday, April 30th – 12 to 7 p.m.
• Friday, May 1st – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday, May 2nd – 1o a.m. to 2 p.m.

So, come join us for a party with fabulous jewelry and do some good!

LifeWorks Goes Green

With the world becoming increasingly environmentally conscious, more people and organizations are doing their part to reduce their carbon footprint and clean up the environment. LifeWorks is also doing its part in becoming environmentally conscious with its group the Green Team.

The LifeWorks Green Team, formed in September 2008, focuses on the three r’s of green living, which are reduce, reuse, recycle. LifeWorks has instituted recycling at all of the sites, along with pickups at four of the sites, which are done by Ecology Action,” says Lauren Dreyer, a founding member.

However, the Green Team doesn’t just focus on recycling. “We planted a garden at the South Site to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs for the shelter, and we get the youth involved in taking care of the garden,” says Lauren.  A new community garden at the East Central Site is in the works where people can rent a space to grow their own fruits and vegetables for as little as $10-$20 a year.

Going green not only saves LifeWorks money, it also creates a cleaner, healthier workplace for LifeWorks’ staff and clients. Counselors at the South Site are using the green space behind the building to conduct counseling sessions. The green space gives counselors and clients a chance to get out of the office environment and helps those being counseled to find peace within nature.

“Part of our long-term green goal for LifeWorks is to create more green spaces and conserve energy, water, and paper,” notes Lauren.  You can do your part by simply recycling. “Starting small is easy. Instead of throwing unneeded paperwork in the trash, throw it in the recycling can instead. And if you’re worried you won’t remember to recycle, you can place a recycling bin at your desk as a reminder,” says Lauren.

Above all, the Green Team needs people to get involved. “We are a flexible committee, and we welcome board members to get involved,” says Lauren. You can also help by donating the following items:

• Recycling bins
• Metal or wooden tables and benches
• A small solar-powered fountain
• Tiles/stones for a patio area
• Butterfly garden plants
• Bricks for building gardens

For more information on the LifeWorks Green Team, or how to help with the community gardens, contact Lauren Dreyer at 512.560.9717 or at lauren.dreyer@lifeworksweb.org.

Books Needed for Street Outreach Program

The LifeWorks Street Outreach Program is in need of books for its collection. 

As the only program of its kind in Austin, Street Outreach provides support services and outreach to homeless, runaway and street dependent youth. Part of the program’s mission is to provide the youth with the educational tools they need to succeed. Some of these tools include books for the youth to read.

In order to expand our collection and give the youth a variety of texts to read, we are looking for books by the following authors:

• Ray Bradbury
• Isaac Asimov
• Orson Scott Card
• Ernest Hemingway
• Stephen King
• H.P. Lovecraft
• Bret Easton Ellis
• E.E. Cummings
• Herman Melville
• Charles Bukowski
• Philip K. Dick
• Kurt Vonnegut
• H.G. Wells
• Robert Wilson

Donations of books by other authors are also welcome.

If you would like to donate books, please contact Abigail Nersesian at 512.735.2475 or at abigail.nersesian@lifeworksweb.org.

LifeWorks Announces We Are One Central Texas

Behind the scenes at the video shoot

In an effort to boost support for Central Texas nonprofits, a group of marketing and communications professionals have teamed up to launch the “We Are One” campaign. 

We Are One calls on the citizens of Central Texas to not only financially support their local nonprofits, but also to get involved in the work the organizations do for the community. One of the campaign’s videos (below) calls Central Texans to action, giving them examples of ways they can be one by donating time, money or, in our case, a backpack filled with clothes and food for homeless youth.

Another video, which can be viewed on YouTube, shows how the nonprofits work with each other to address the growing needs of the region.

We Are One also stresses the importance of joining together during these hard economic times. Now more than ever, nonprofits must rely on the help of the community and their fellow nonprofit peers.  All of the nonprofits participating in the campaign include:

• American Cancer Society
• Austin Children’s Shelter
• Big Brothers Big Sisters
• Capital Area Food Bank
• Greenlights for NonProfit Success
• Lance Armstrong Foundation
• Leadership Austin
• LifeWorks
• SafePlace
• Seton Foundations
• Southwest Key Programs
• United Way Capital Area

In a grassroots effort to get more people involved, We Are One has launched its own website and has taken advantage of the social media platform by joining Facebook and Twitter.  To take part in our conversation on Twitter, use hashtag #wer1.

For more information on We Are One and on how you can get involved, visit www.weareonecentraltexas.com.

Raise Money for LifeWorks through GoodSearch

Donating to LifeWorks is now easier than before. You can help LifeWorks raise money simply by using GoodSearch.com, a search engine powered by Yahoo! that donates 50 percent of its revenue to the charities of your choice.  

Sign up for GoodSearch here. To get started, simply choose LifeWorks as your cause and click “verify.” Then, search the web as you normally would, and for every search you make, GoodSearch will donate money to LifeWorks.

Spread the word about GoodSearch by emailing your family and friends, or by adding GoodSearch to your homepage. Doing so will allow the people in your life to support LifeWorks on your behalf.

And, if you shop online at GoodShop.com, up to 30 percent of every purchase you make will go to benefit LifeWorks. For a full list of GoodShop partner merchants, visit the GoodShop website.

More information about using GoodSearch and GoodShop can be found at www.goodsearch.com.

LifeWorks Receives Reaccreditation

LifeWorks was recently reaccredited by the Counsel on Accreditation. The peer reviewers were very impressed with the dedication and hard work of our staff, and there were no formal findings that required a response.

Here are just a few of the comments that LifeWorks received from the peer reviewers:

• The board is very involved in and knowledgeable about LifeWorks’ activities.
• LifeWorks shows a “pervasive commitment to doing the right thing.”
• Our commitment to client rights is evident everywhere.
• LifeWorks staff were praised for their passion and dedication in serving the clients.

In a statement released by LifeWorks Executive Director Susan McDowell, she noted the speed with which LifeWorks received the accreditation and said “I want to thank all of you once more for you commitment to providing the highest quality of service to our clients and the greatest degree of accountability to all our stakeholders. It is one of the many things that makes this organization great.”

Congratulations to all LifeWorks staff members on a job well done!

LifeWorks Volunteer Spotlight: Terry Cole

When Terry began volunteering for LifeWorks, he didn’t realize that it would turn into his life’s greatest passion. In August 2003, Terry was asked by a friend to serve a meal for homeless youth.  He recalls that “My volunteer service at LifeWorks began on an unlikely note – I wanted to quit after my first hour.  However, that hour turned into hundreds and changed my life!”

LifeWorks wasn’t exactly like the service opportunities Terry had been previously afforded.  In fact, he had just returned from a mission trip to Mexico before volunteering for LifeWorks. “My first experience at LifeWorks just didn’t have the personal element that the mission trip to Mexico had,” says Terry.

However, after giving it a second chance Terry began to realize that he could connect with the youth of the Street Outreach Program, even if only for a minute. “I found that if I slowed down the serving, I could have almost 90 seconds with each young man or woman to say hi, to ask something about them, and to find out their names.”  Every time Terry served a meal to the youth, he was able to continue his conversations and learn more about each person.

After several years of serving meals to youth in the Street Outreach program, Terry was asked by the director of LifeWorks to engage the youth during the meals.  To prepare him for longer converations, Terry was given training to follow the LifeWorks model for drawing out the youths’ strengths and encouraging them.

Today, Terry has expanded his committment to Austin’s youth by taking his ministry to the streets. “I want to encourage you to get involved with LifeWorks. Your donations of money, goods and volunteer hours go very far at LifeWorks.  The work has great impact and great outcomes because of the sound basis of the LifeWorks programs in social work and training.”

If you would like to learn more about Terry and his work with Austin’s youth, you can read his blog at  http://streetyouth.blogspot.com/.

Gear up for ZOOMA

Get your teams together for the ZOOMA Austin Half Marathon & 5K to be held at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort & Spa on Saturday, April 4. You and your friends can take on the challenging Texas countryside course while helping your community by raising money for LifeWorks.

After the race, join us for the Zooma Austin After-Party Expo which will feature a catered brunch, mini spa treatments, shopping, live music, and more. Plus, all half marathon finishers will receive a custom-designed silver necklace upon crossing the finish line.

Men, women and children are encouraged to participate in the races. To sign up for either the half marathon or 5K, visit http://races.zoomarun.com/austin/registration.php.  After you register, click on the charity link to help fundraise for LifeWorks. $3 of every entry fee will go directly to LifeWorks.

If you register by March 15, you can save $10. Online registration will close at 8p.m. CST on Monday, March 30. Late registrations will be accepted at packet pick locations through April 3.

Reserve your spot now, and we’ll see you on race day!