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What’s Up with the Client Advisory Council?

I’m Chearie Phelps, the Client Advisory Council (CAC) Organizer at Bread for the City.

The CAC is a group of Bread for the City clients that works with staff to help the organization continuously grow and better serve its client community. The Client Advisory Council is essentially a BFC accountability body that ensures the organization does what it says it will do.

I started off as a client and volunteer of Bread for the City. I was facing many barriers as a returning citizen, all while experiencing homelessness and also in need of  two hip replacements. With Bread’s help, I overcame those obstacles, and almost a year ago on May 16th I became an employee here at Bread for the City organizing with the CAC. It has been a great experience!

The Client Advisory Council is all about empowering our members. This year, the Council is organizing workshops and trainings in “undoing racism”, racial equity, Protective Action Response (PAR) training, and sensitivity training.

One of the CAC’s newest members, Jon Doeboi, told me why he wanted to join the CAC.

He said, “I like that it’s a collective of mostly African Americans sharing their ideas about how an organization should operate to best serve their needs and improving relationships between clients and staff.”

We also have great fundraising events coming up: car washes which we will host twice a month, and an “Oldies but goodies” party is being planned. Money raised from these will go towards funding our trainings and activities, as well as a CAC donation towards the Capital Expansion project for the new SE Center.

We are excitedly looking forward to the continued growth of Bread for the City and the Client Advisory Council!

If you are you a client of BFC and interested in getting involved with CAC, contact Chearie at cphelps-el@breadforthecity.org.

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