Volunteer Spotlight
For Arundel House of Hope volunteer Audrey Brotherton, it all started with a class assignment: immerse yourself in a population you are not affiliated with.
Brotherton is an Arundel House of Hope (AHOH) volunteer that began serving in July of 2024. She got involved with AHOH after being given the assignment in her master’s program and recalling that her church serves in the AHOH Winter Relief program.
“I was interested in the homeless but didn’t know how to connect. But the Arundel House of Hope and the Winter Relief program connected me,” Brotherton said.
In the Winter Relief program, Brotherton went with AHOH to different churches last March. She was the coordinator of events in an Annapolis church, where it was her duty to come up with activities for those in attendance, which happened to be an all-guy group. While stumped about what they would enjoy at first, she soon developed a sports trivia game that was a hit with everyone.
“I don’t know a thing about [sports],” Brotherton laughed. “But I know guys do,” she added, as many of the men excelled in the trivia game.
“We really had a great time. Then we sat down and ate like a Thanksgiving meal together.”
Her immersion project was a success, and she decided to continue volunteering with AHOH afterwards. She began a group called Friends Falling Forward. This group meets on the last Friday of every month and is open for any unhoused people in the community to join. She leads her group through motivational activities and conversations that are pivotal to their journeys.
“Friends do fall down,” Brotherton said. “We all fall, but we want to fall forward… If you fall forward, you usually can brace yourself. But if you fall backwards, how are you going to brace yourself?”
And there’s one more benefit to falling forward.
“You have gained some momentum,” Brotherton added. “Backwards, you’re going back. Forward, at least you’re going forward.”
To do this, group members, known as Fellow Friends, focus on each other’s strengths, which bind them together to support one another and cultivate an environment where the playing field is level in their group. There is a salient agreement that everyone is there for one purpose: moving forward.
Her lesson plans are particularly nuanced and wise, often using demonstrations to teach on points such as forgiveness, trials, and perseverance. During one class, she brought in ten optical illusions. As people took on the illusions, Brotherton explained that, just the brain is wired to not see the illusion, the brain is often wired to not notice its own addictions. For a lesson on forgiveness, Brotherton handcuffed herself to one Fellow Friend to demonstrate that unforgiveness handcuffs one to the person one is not forgiving, even if the two people are trying to move in opposite directions.
Brotherton often hears how these powerful lessons have impacted Fellow Friends by their feedback to her, such as one Fellow Friend who recently spoke with her after a lesson on persistence to underscore how the lesson resonated with him. She also sees the impact through her growing class size. However, it is not only the Fellow Friends who are being impacted.
Brotherton emphasized that she learns during sessions just as much as Fellow Friends do. She has learned a lot about homelessness in general. She noted that, while the media portrays unhoused people in a negative light, anyone can become unhoused. Often, little separates housed people from experiencing homelessness: the difference can be as simple as getting caught in a mistake or developing an illness.
“This is life. Period. There’s a Scripture that says ‘[let him] that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall’. So don’t think that you can’t fall,” Brotherton laughs. “Cause you certainly can.”
Perhaps the biggest testimony to the impact volunteering has had on Brotherton is that she now seeks to work at AHOH after completing her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health. This journey will surely lead her to impacting many more lives– and it all started with a class assignment.
“I feel… honored to even be a part of AHOH,” Brotherton reflects. “It has opened my eyes. Now when you talk about the homeless, I have a whole different perspective.”
