Written by Ben Cutler
My name is Ben Cutler and my ex-wife, Ana, and I founded Project Family in late 2022 with the intention of helping individuals and families in economic crisis, who need and want help. Our intention was to provide temporary housing and work assistance program for families experiencing homelessness. A lot has happened since then: My wife and I separated upon soft launching the idea.
We started Project Family thinking about a large project, but what has evolved is a bigger vision of many smaller (more manageable) projects and the organization is seeking to empower people in many ways. Project Family was started though self-funding and we haven’t requested any donations to date, but we have received a few donations and we’ll continue to put 100% of what we receive directly into these programs.
In January 2023, we partnered with the Homeless Entrepreneur organization with the goal of collaborating on opportunities to empower people out of poverty and to promote awareness around these them. I was recently invited to participate in an event called “Inspiring Talks”, which is organized by Homeless Entrepreneur. This was the second event of its kind and this program aims to introduce one member of the Homeless Entrepreneur HELP Program to other entrepreneurs and executives to share stories and conversation.
I was invited to speak with Gabriel O. (beneficiary of the HELP program) and he and I had many things in common. We’re both about 40 years old; we both have daughters; we’re both living in developing economies; we’ve both seen firsthand the challenges presented by extreme poverty; and we’ve both been crushed by family ruptures. Gabriel is a priest in his local community and aspiring to start a remote career in technology. I am just getting out of an intense remote career in technology, and I’m very passionate about helping people, both personally and professionally.
I offered to help Gabriel and I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to do so, but I knew he was earning very little money as a Pastor and had accumulated about 6 months’ worth of earnings in debt. I knew money was a concern for him and so were his temporary living quarters. He was participating in the HELP Program with Homeless Entrepreneur, and he was working with a career coach towards starting a career in web development. I spoke with Andrew Funk at Homeless Entrepreneur, and we agreed to offer Gabriel simulated remote work opportunities, compensated at a fair rate, and designing the activities to benefit his learning and development process.
We decided to offer simulated client engagement opportunities representing simple market research tasks. Gabriel struggled a bit at first but once properly coordinated, Gabriel’s career coach (Sara Jurado) was able to help steer the process. After completing the first activity, Sara reported that she observed Gabriel with an improved attitude or outlook towards the development process. The goals of these simulated work opportunities were to help Gabriel to learn and to experience remote work in a “safe” environment, to challenge his mind and commitment, and to compensate him for his efforts. These tasks were designed to lift his spirits and to challenge his assumptions about his own perceived limitations.
The reader might be wondering, why do you need to challenge his own assumptions about his own perceived limitations? To that I would say that hope is powerful and so is information. Life is incredibly complex and people often need more “hand-holding” in life. People often need incentives to learn new things and tend to search for jobs in their profession (ex. customer service) but they don’t realize how many different ways they can search for jobs. They don’t realize how many different job seeking resources exist. They don’t realize that if they change keywords, they will get different results. They don’t realize that there are so many opportunities readily available to them! In Gabriel’s case, I think it was helpful for him to see a number things he’ll need to learn and practice, and that there are so many smaller steps that he can take along the way, to move closer to his goal.
Gabriel and I have spoken many times and it’s clear that he is facing hardships. It can be very difficult to have faith and to always be your best when facing such difficulties. After completing the tasks assigned to him, Gabriel communicated to me his desperation in such times, and his gratitude for these programs, and his renewed sense of strength, even if it was fleeting.
We’re very happy with the success of this program with Gabriel and we have started conversations with the Homeless Entrepreneur organization to provide additional opportunities to Gabriel and to others.
Please email info@projectfamily.info or funk@homeslessentrepreneur.org to learn how to get involved in a similar way.