Paying it Forward: How the Formerly Homeless are Lending a Hand

You can do your part, too, by donating your car in Cincinnati

One simple act of kindness sparked an 11-hour chain of paying it forward at a Florida Starbucks. 

This past August, a woman at the coffee shop’s drive-thru paid for her own drink, and asked to pay for the customer behind her as well. The customer behind her then paid for the next customer, and so on. This led to 378 people paying for each other’s drinks.

Paying it forward is meant to spread the love, and do good things for everyone around you, in the hope that they will in turn do good things for the people around them.

How paying it forward benefits the homeless

Sometimes, when a homeless individual is able to seek help and successfully turn their life around, they will in turn give back to the homeless community in order to help others.

For instance, consider the story of Eric, a formerly homeless man who was given a $1,000 lottery ticket as a friendly YouTube ‘prank.’ After collecting his winnings, he opted to share them with the man that gave him the ticket, a kind gesture that prompted many people to donate money to Eric, so much so that he is now off the streets and has a fully furnished house.

Today Eric uses his money to help homeless individuals, much in the same way he was helped. Recently, he used $1,000 of his own money to pay for a hotel room for another homeless man.

Another inspiring story occurred this past August when Jenedith Fontanez, a formerly homeless mother of two, was given a ride and $500, which she used for a down payment on an apartment. After the Internet caught wind of her story, donations came flooding in, from money and food to furniture and babysitting offers.

Jenedith plans to take advantage of this kindness by giving back to the homeless community in the form of creating a social program that aims to assist impoverished single parents.

You can pay it forward too: donate your car in Cincinnati

These stories all started with the kindness of strangers. Paying it forward and helping the homeless get their lives back can have an exponentially positive effect on the homeless community as a whole. As more and more people are able to return to stable lives, they may use their time to help the homeless population they were once a part of.

If you’d like to help, and you have an old or unused vehicle you want to get rid of, you can donate your car in Cincinnati. Cars, boats, ATVs, RVs, motorcycles, tractors–we’ll take just about anything with a motor, running or not.

When you donate your vehicle to Volunteers of America, the benefits help us fund our social service programs to hungry families in all of the Ohio communities we serve.

Just fill out our online vehicle donation form or call (800) 225-0732. We offer free same-day towing, and you might even get more money for your vehicle as a tax-deductible donation than you would by selling it on your own.