| November 09, 2018 By Judy Gray Giving Voice Occasionally an acquaintance, or a friend, aware that I volunteer at The Gathering Place, will inquire, “So, who are these people?” Who are these people? What brings them to The Gathering Place? The Gathering Place literature often refers to the homeless, the marginalized, the materially poor — all valid descriptors, but far from the whole picture. The impetus for The Gathering Place arose out of concern for the homeless and more specifically the realization that people at the Tedford Shelter had few places to go during the daytime when Tedford wasn’t available to them. Homeless people, whether living at the shelter, or in a tent, a car, or “couch surfing”, remain the regulars among the guests at The Gathering Place. But the regulars evolve and change. Guests find stable housing and we never see them again, or see them very rarely. Guests find housing and life happens and they lose it. People come back because life has turned hard again. People come back to tell us that things have gotten better. Sometimes when life calms down, a guest comes back and becomes a volunteer, bringing an especially valuable perspective of someone who has “been there, done that.” Who are these people? Sometimes they are people who just want to be warm in the winter, or cool in the summer, or people who want a cup of coffee, a bagel, a muffin. Lonely people who want to walk in to a place where everybody knows your name. They are card players, and jigsaw puzzle aficionados, and crossword puzzle addicts. People who love to talk and people who want to be left alone. People who want access to wi-fi or the opportunity to use a computer. People looking for answers and people with all the answers. They are diverse. They are all ages: older people living on Social Security or a pension, some just scraping by and some pretty comfortable; aging hippies; brash young guys and girls. School drop outs and college graduates, musicians, fishermen, veterans, retirees, artists, people traveling through and people who’ve always lived in Maine, always lived in Brunswick. LGBT and straight. Devout people and non believers. Trump admirers and left wing liberals and a fair number of indifferent folks in between. People of color and all those folks from the whitest state in the union. Do they have problems, issues? Yep, they sure do. No housing, no job, no medical or dental care. Diagnosed, and not diagnosed mental health problems, addictions to drugs prescribed and not, old fashioned alcoholics. Some of them are pretty screwed up. Are they evil, dangerous people? Rarely. Are they good, generous, kindly people? Frequently. Not always. Who are these people? Hard to imagine I guess, but they are just people, real people. Not animals in the zoo or the subjects of an anthropological study. They’re human. Some of them are really funny and smart. Others, not so much. Some have some fantastic ideas, and have had some impressive accomplishments. They are interesting people and fascinating to talk with. Some are jerks (What, you thought that being poor made you perfect? Nah.]. Who are these people? My friends. People I see when I volunteer. People I see when I’m not volunteering because if I’m in Brunswick, I’ll stop by. Yeah, these are my friends. I hope I am theirs. Who are these people? Oh, people who care enough about The Gathering Place to bitch and complain that, in the seven plus years of its existence, it’s changed. It has. There are people I miss and a more casual, easy going approach. The Gathering Place has growing pains. But, I had a message recently from a very old friend: “As I am now living in my van, I thought about the Gathering Place the other day, and how much I would appreciate a place like that!” Giving Voice is a weekly collaboration among four local non-profit service agencies to share information and stories about their work in the community.