ANOKA, Minn. – (Feb. 15, 2018) – Stepping Stone Emergency housing works to help break the cycle of homelessness and in the current social media age, the image you present online may help present more opportunities. That’s why the center offered headshots for the homeless, where makeup artists, hair stylists and a photographer offered their services.
“We had a photographer come in, so he took pictures of our residents for head shots that they could put on social media, Facebook, Linkedin,” said Executive Director Julie Jeppson. “The hope was to provide them of a really good picture of themselves so that when they’re applying for jobs, apartments, anything, that is the first thing people look for now, when you apply for something, you go online, look at their picture, see what they’re about, see how they live their lives and if you want to interview them or not, so this was just a gift that we were able to give our residents so that they could have that really nice picture and put their best foot forward.”
Jeppson said it’s an event they hope to make a tradition.
“It’s a first time but it’s definitely not the last, we are definitely going to be doing it again, because we had only three people sign up in the morning and we probably ended the day with about fifteen people who did it and, everyone just loved it and they felt wonderful and beautiful about themselves,” she said.
For Jeppson it was a gift worth more than just a picture.
“It was so interesting the day of,” she said. “Their poise was a lot straighter, they stood up straighter, they had a little bit of a twinkle in their eye because they felt so good, there were just smiles everywhere, but then understanding what they just went through and having that soak in was pretty profound because they really haven’t been given these gifts before; all they want to do is be treated like you and I, they just want to have the same advantages that you and I do, and living in a homeless shelter, it’s not possible, so being able to give them this gift the other day was so inspiring.”
For residents, that image resonated from the inside out and their gifts were able to shine through.
“I think the way we present ourselves is a reflection of how we feel about ourselves, and so a lot of people here, it’s very difficult to get up in the morning and do themselves up for the day because so many people living in this situation are in crisis and honestly broken human beings and to be able to realize the beauty that’s external, then also know that you have that beauty inside of you that needs to just shine through, I took more than I gave,” Jeppson said.
Stepping Stone is the only homeless shelter for adults in the entire metro are outside of Hennepin or Ramsey County. They have a waiting list of over 100 people.
