News
RHD Media Center
All news
Woodstock Family Center welcomes international coalition seeking solutions to homelessness
12/28/2009 8:44:19 AM
RHD's Woodstock Family Center welcomed an international coalition seeking solutions to homelessness in their countries, and investigating the successes found here in Philadelphia. The Dec. 23 visit, initiated by Georgios Arsenis, the vice mayor of Athens, Greece, and Georgia Athanasopulos, consul general of Panama, featured a gift-giving ceremony and dinner for the shelter residents and their guests provided by Petrogiannis Family. Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter attended, handing out gifts to the children at Woodstock.
"We are delighted and very honored by your interest in what we're doing, and to hear about what you're doing in your countries,'' said RHD CEO Bob Fishman, who was on hand to greet the consular corps and the mayor. "The issue of homelessness is an international issue. It is an issue we all have, in the way our societies are structured. The people we see here at the Woodstock Family Center are a testament to how people can survive – and thrive – even in difficult situations."
RHD CEO Bob Fishman and Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter at Woodstock Family Center.
Representatives from Greece, Panama, Sweden, Brazil, Norway, Spain. France and Costa Rica toured local homeless shelters, ending their visit at Woodstock.
"Woodstock Family Center is a model of the kinds of things we have to do – not want to do, have to do – to keep families together,'' Nutter said. "We seek to be the first major American city to end homelessness. This is a challenge we must take up. This is the challenge that faces us, and we must face it together."
Arsenis, who coordinates the homeless efforts in Athens, gave gifts from Greece to Fishman and Nutter, thanking them for their hospitality. He referenced Nutter's pledge to end homelessness and said: "I hope the wish you made comes true."
