The House of Peace: Is a religious community institution

The House of Peace is a religious community institution. It was created in 1968 in order to develop the African-American culture among the neighborhood, programs focused on children and adolescents, and help those in need. Today, this institution has changed a little since the beginning, but its goal remains basically the same: to be a place of growth, assistance and healing.

Before visiting the House of Peace I thought it was a place where low-income and homeless families could get some support through the community willingness. There they would have, food, clothing, health assistance, a spiritual/psychological guidance and a temporary shelter.

Thus, I believe my expectations were based on my previous knowledge of projects with the same goal: help deprived families. Back in Brazil (where I live), my church community is always helping institutions that also invests in families from needy communities. Generally what we try to do is to donate to those institutions what they need the most (food, cloth, money), give our time to those families, and teach them about God.

Having in mind the institutions I am used to visit – which have not much resources and a remarkable number of families who depend on them – I was very surprised to the House of Peace organization. They have a room full of clothes from donation to give away, basket with a full meal for a few days given to feed those families with nothing to eat in emergency times, they have a legal and free clinic to assist people and support group reunions for men and women. What surprised me the most is that anyone can benefit from this program, whether they are rich or not, the only requirement is to have the area zip code.

Moreover, because of my Health Assessment of Family classes and readings related, I was able to see how families can be holistically assisted. It is not only a nursing or any other health professional work to provide care and health for families. A family health is not only defined be the absence of illness, but by the welfare, safety and tranquility the family have. All of this provided by families in the form of cloth, food and health care, it is, the House of Peace is providing health through the human basic needs.

In this scenario nurses are health promotion protagonists. Institutions like House of Peace receive lots and different types of guests, as they like to call their families visitors. Most of these guests have a little or none background regard health issues and the nurse is the one responsible to fill this gap.

From a holistic and human assessment the nurse will try to implement and reach the most appropriate outcomes for each family, which can be a hard task since the families do not have the obligation to make a regular visit to the institution. However, the nurse must do their best way in order to recognize each family strengths and stressors and work on them. It is also the nursing role to encourage the family to continue seeking for a better lifestyle, since they do not know when or if there will be a next contact between them.

After the visit to the House of Peace and to get to know how they work and have survived for so many years, I felt glad that still exist people who cares about others. The reason why this institution have last for almost 50 years, although the difficulties they might have, is the community love. Everyone that works at the House of Peace is not there for money,