President of local organization receives award for work with city's underprivileged
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Each year the People's Emergency Center of Philadelphia honors an individual who has played a critical role in nurturing families, strengthening communities, and driving change.
This year the center recognizes one of their own. PEC President Gloria Guard will receive the Imprint Award Tuesday for her work with the impoverished.
She says it's satisfying to help the homeless take steps to become homeowners who are employed full-time with kids graduating from college. Still, she says there's more work to be done.
Guard:
Homeless families used to be about one-quarter of the homeless population; and because of a variety of federal policies, that proportion has grown. Not only has homelessness and poverty grown, but families – moms and kids – are now making up at least half the population, and that trend was one that could have been predicted by federal decisions that were made. And that, I see, as not as a personal failure but as a systemic failure.
After decades of dedication to her mission, Guard will soon leave PEC. She says she will continue to work with, and on behalf of, the poor.