“A Safe space and shared community where all are welcome to experience practical love.”
Sacred Suds exists to provide a safe space where neighbors share work, resources, costs, and dreams. Birthed in 2004 and housed in a one-story, pale yellow building with a colorful storied mural on one side, Sacred Suds exists to “Create Space for Community”.
It’s a working community. It’s a place where everyone is invited to the table to plan how to positively impact the neighborhood, a place where chores are shared …emptying trash, setting up and taking down the Thursday noon meal, and using maintenance skills to repair whatever needs fixing. It’s a shared working space.
Sacred Suds relies on volunteers .
Small great things matter here – like taking showers and washing clothes at reduced rates, accessing computers to find jobs, sharing a fresh donut and coffee with a neighbor and telling life’s stories, getting some advice from a case manager who can direct you toward better housing and healthier choices, and spending time with a tax expert for free tax preparation. It’s a shared resource space.
There’s a free flow of ideas in this community space. Take this story, for example: One person states, “I wish I could learn how to sew”. Another says, “I know someone who knows how to sew” and yet another wonders, “Do you think the person who knows how to sew will teach us how to sew?”. From those simple conversations, a sewing class dream begins…fabric is donated and purchased cheaply, sewing machines are found, and folks have new opportunities to learn, to create and to be clothed in style! It’s a shared dreaming space.
Doreco has been coming to Sacred Suds for years. He comes to use the computer to help find jobs. Thanks to access to technology at Sacred Suds, he currently is working in a restaurant in Muskegon. He takes pride in the fact that he has a job and that he contributes to Sacred Suds by emptying trash and sweeping to keep the space clean. One young man who recently was introduced to Sacred Suds really appreciates the safe, quiet atmosphere and that someone is helping him find better housing. Grady has been coming for the past 5-6 years. He likes that Sacred Suds tries to do positive things with the community and that he can just sit and chat with people who listen to him and help him to get through life. It’s a shared safe space.
Computers are available to help connect neighbors to needed resources.
Support for Sacred Suds comes primarily through volunteers – some who travel quite a distance because they love the people, some who lend a helping hand while they wait on laundry, and some like the “down the street “organizations, Ryke’s Bakery and nurses from Mercy Health, who provide donuts and Thursday’s meal. Besides the volunteers, housing grants and other small grants help pay for the staff and other expenses. It’s a shared cost space.
Is a neighbor who lives next door or down the street aware of Sacred Suds? How does Sacred Sud’s presence impact the neighborhood? These are discussions that take place these days around the Thursday noon meal table and in impromptu and planned meetings. Stay tuned! It’s a shared presence space.
Affordable laundry and shower facilities are available to low income neighbors.
Sacred Suds is a safe community where neighbors share work, resources, costs, and dreams. It’s a place where people are present with each other - where people are heard and ideas matter. It’s a space where one person’s gifts match another person’s needs. It’s a space where people acknowledge and accept that they are interdependent - within the walls of Sacred Suds and within the local community. Sacred Suds exists to “Create Space for Community”.
For more information about Sacred Suds contact the manager, sacredsuds@communityencompass.org or call 231-726-4161.
You can also keep up to date via FACEBOOK
You’ve got to have a network that you trust above yourself. We always see ourselves less than what we are, and sometimes you have to trust the voices of those around you.