Category: News

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Special Benefit Screening of Award-Winning Documentary “We Are All In This Together” at Sacramento State

(Sacramento, CA) – Today, Joshua’s House Volunteer Hospice (Joshua’s House) hosted a special screening of the critically acclaimed documentary, “We Are All In This Together” at Sacramento State University. The powerful film follows Daniel Troia on his remarkable cross-country bicycle journey, undertaken without food or money, in search of human connection.

“’We Are All In This Together’ beautifully highlights the power of human kindness and compassion, which resonates deeply with the mission of Joshua’s House as it reminds us of the profound impact that small acts of generosity can have on those in need,” said Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, who founded Joshua’s House in memory of her grandson, Joshua, who died homeless at the age of 34. “We are grateful for Daniel’s commitment and passion, and for allowing us to host this benefit screening of his award-winning film.”

Troia’s deeply captivating story, with spectacular footage, takes him on many twists and turns through glorious and grueling landscapes. The film touches on relationships with strangers, the shame of living on the streets, and society’s judgments of the unhoused; all of which convince him that there is much more that brings us together than separates us.

“So many things can feel overwhelming in our world right now, but the people I met showed me that the one thing we CAN control is how we treat each other,” said Daniel Troia, filmmaker and director. “Every single day, we have the opportunity to show up for someone who needs help. On an individual level, this is where change really begins.”

“We Are All In This Together” has won 19 awards at various international film festivals, including “Best Inspirational Film” at the New York International Film Awards and “Best Humanitarian Film” at the San Francisco International Film Awards. 60% of the ticket sales on June 23 were donated to Joshua’s House.

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Joshua’s House Volunteer Hospice Honored as 2024 Non-Profit of Distinction

(Sacramento, CA) – Joshua’s House Volunteer Hospice (Joshua’s House) is proud to announce that it has been selected as one of Assemblymember Kevin McCarty’s 2024 Non-Profits of Distinction. This prestigious honor recognizes the invaluable service Joshua’s House will provide in Assembly District 6 to end the tragic history of vulnerable unhoused people dying on the streets of Sacramento.

“It is an incredible honor for Joshua’s House to be recognized by Assemblymember McCarty,” said  Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, Founder and CEO of Joshua’s House. “This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our volunteers and supporters. We remain committed to our mission of providing dignified end-of-life care to Sacramento County’s homeless community.”

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Big Day of Giving 2024!

May 2nd is quickly approaching, and our push for a strong Big Day of Giving (BDOG) is fully underway! BDOG is an annual 24-hour, community-wide movement that unites the region’s nonprofit sector to help raise unrestricted funds for the organizations that strengthen the capital area.

BDOG is our biggest fundraising push of the year, and we need your help to reach our goal! Construction on the Joshua’s House site has already begun, but we must meet our fundraising goals to officially open our doors to Sacramento’s terminally ill homeless people. Your donations will go towards furnishing our homes and getting the property ready to accept one of Sacramento’s most vulnerable populations.

The “early giving” period has begun, and your donations through May 2 will go towards meeting our BDOG goal!

Fortunately, donating is not the only way to help us. Simply interacting with and sharing our content goes a long way in our efforts too! Please consider visiting our social channels – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – and sharing our BDOG content. Here is a list of actions you can do to help us spread the word and reach our fundraising goals:

  1. Retweet our BDOG Tweets
  2. Share our BDOG Facebook posts
  3. Sign up for and share our newsletter
  4. Donate towards our fundraising goal, between now and May 2

Thank you very much for your continued support of Joshua’s House. Our mission of ensuring no one dies alone on the street is fueled by compassionate supporters like you.

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A Life of Giving and Sharing

February 9, 1962 to October 9, 2018

Robert Laneau grew up in the northern part of Haiti near Cap-Haitien. Like many Haitian children he had multiple maternal influences during his youth. As a young man with limited economic and educational opportunities, he moved to the Dominican Republic looking for prosperity. He embraced the opportunity to add Spanish to his French and Kreyòl language abilities. Robert was successful in selling Haitian artwork in the small town of Sosúa along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. A proud father of Jean Ronel, Rose Bertha, and Robert Lee, he wanted to give his children the opportunity to move out of poverty and enjoy a better life.  

In 1997, during an unlikely encounter, Robert met his future wife, Charlotte. The first conversation Charlotte and Robert shared was one about art. She was gazing at a wall where Robert displayed art by various Haitian artists and he whispered to her, “Take your time and choose one that speaks to your heart.” Eight years later, Charlotte and Robert joined hands in marriage in a simple ceremony in Pétion-Ville, Haiti. After an arduous fight, Robert immigrated to the United States of America in 2006 and resided in Sacramento where he naturalized as a US Citizen in 2009.  

Like many immigrants, Robert’s transition to living in the United States was challenging. He was surprised by the number of homeless people wandering the streets of Sacramento. Robert loved to cook and he was often found sharing rice and beans with the people that he found rummaging through the garbage cans in the alleys of Midtown. He gained great popularity and often there would be a crowd with hungry bellies ringing bells in the morning. 

He started making refrigerator magnets after the 2011 Haiti earthquake in an effort to raise funds to help family and friends survive the daily challenges of life in Haiti. His confidence solidified, and Robert moved from selling magnets to Haitian artwork. He used acrylic on canvas to share images of Haitian life. He had a childish sense of humor, he was joyful when he made people smile, he spoke 4 languages with ease, he loved music and he wanted desperately to make Haiti a better place. His life tragically ended during a visit to Haiti in 2018, leaving his wife Charlotte to search for ways to share his gift of art with those that appreciate his style and increase an awareness of Haiti and the underserved in the USA. Joshua’s House is near and dear to both Robert and Charlotte, hence the reason to share Robert’s work in the JH homes. You can see two of his paintings below:

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Lyon Cares Foundation Provides Grant to Joshua’s House

From left to right: Anthony Jackson (Vice President); Ashley Andreoni-Romo; Yvonne Nelson; David Falcone (Manager); Terri Falcone; Mike Maples; Debbie Storey; Brooke Abramyan; Lonnie Meier; Romer Cristobal (Joshua’s House); Andrew Kerch; Debbie Bair; Ed Perez Rick Rogers; Rod Bouvia; Lee Xiong; and Tong Veu. 

Lyon Cares Foundation Provides Grant to Joshua’s House

By Marlene M. Fitzwater

On November 9, 2023, Lyon Cares Foundation of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation provided a $5,000 grant to Joshua’s House! Romer Cristobal, a Joshua’s House Board Member and Ambassador for the City of Sacramento, was responsible for obtaining the grant. Romer is also a Board Member of The Hamptons and Chair of the Community Engagement Committee. He also serves as a Board Member for the Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce. This grant will provide necessary clothing, toiletries, and individual bedding for residents.

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MAD Aveda Salon & Spa Supports Joshua’s House

By Marlene M. Fitzwater

David and Martin Burnett, owners of MAD Aveda Salon & Spa in Natomas, have been longtime supporters of Joshua’s House Volunteer Hospice and were pleased to present a check for $1,000 to Marlene Fitzwater, Founder & CEO of Joshua’s House in January 2024. Clients were invited to donate during December as part of a “Be a Hero for the Homeless” fundraising campaign. With a $20 donation, the client was given a beautiful Christmas tree ornament.

MAD Aveda Salon & Spa is located at 4730 Natomas Blvd. #120, in Natomas.

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Serving One Segment of the Homeless Population with Love & Compassion

By Marlene M. Fitzwater

Homeless people represent a vulnerable group in society, yet according to an editorial in the Lancet, “…we still have a 14-century-long tradition of treating them as criminals… [They] are more likely to be victims of crime, rather than perpetrators. Many homeless have experienced brutal childhoods, unstable families, or domestic violence. They are more than ten times as likely to be assaulted and 50 times more likely to be robbed than those who have a home. 40% of young homeless women have been abused sexually and many are at risk from untreated sexually transmitted diseases…”

Our society seems to move back and forth from punishing the homeless to trying to come up with compassionate solutions to get them cared for and housed.

Homelessness has been studied, discussed, politicized, argued over, ignored, and confounded. There seems to be no solution. While this is a major problem, particularly in California cities, it is an enduring problem – a problem that in reality will never fully go away. It will not go away for a variety of reasons.

The causes are diverse – high housing costs, drug addictions, unemployment, mental health, bankruptcies, to name a few. And for that reason, the solutions must be diverse as well.

Joshua’s House Hospice will address one segment of the homeless population with love, compassion, and dignity in their final days: those who have been medically diagnosed as terminally ill. We don’t have answers about how to best serve and care for homeless individuals with serious, untreated mental health issues or those with drug addiction.

But we do have a deep understanding of hospice care. We have completed hospice education, researched the public’s perceptions of hospice care, and taught hospice care and principles to medical and nursing students.

We invite you to join us in spreading love and compassion to the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor!

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Building a Beloved Community: Unite, Serve, Transform on MLK Day

By Marlene M. Fitzwater

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. 

MLK Day, Monday, January 15, 2024, is the only federal holiday designated as a National Day of Service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. In honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are encouraging people to seek ways to assist the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick – terminally ill, homeless men and women – who are dying on our streets and along our rivers.

We are looking at MLK Day this year as a starting point. We need a fundraising team for “Big Day of Giving” on May 2, 2024. We would be grateful for assistance in recruiting Boy Scout troops to plan, implement, and maintain gardens on the Joshua’s House property. Additionally, we would welcome help with increasing awareness of Joshua’s House as we prepare to open in late spring this year!

Please visit our website: www.joshuashousehospice.org and become a member of our Beloved Community!

But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

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Cultural Differences that Impact Understanding of Hospice Care

By Marlene M. Fitzwater

Latinos are less likely than white people to use hospice care, although there is evidence that their need for services may be greater. While there has been an increased effort by hospices to reach out to minority populations, hospice care is still underutilized by Latino families, according to the American Hospice Foundation.

This means that few Latino families have experience with hospice care and, thus, they may have misconceptions about what a hospice facility like Joshua’s House offers or doubt the honesty of the information shared about its use.

While Latino families may not seek hospice care for family members, it is a different story for Latinos who are homeless. Homelessness among Latino Californians has increased by 22%, more than three times the overall state increase of 6.2% over the same period.

The sharp increase in unhoused Latino Californians most likely results from the effects of the pandemic which exacerbated the economic and housing insecurity many communities of color already faced. Latino Californians experienced high rates of housing hardship and unemployment and disproportionately worked in essential, low-wage occupations. They also confronted higher rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths during the first year of the pandemic, before COVID-19 vaccines and treatments were available. Combined, the pandemic’s deep economic and health ramifications made families and individuals more susceptible to not being able to afford to maintain their homes.

Thus, an increasing percentage of Latinos have become homeless. Because of genetics and environment, each unique ethnic group in the United States is at an increased risk for developing certain conditions. Several health issues are more prevalent in Hispanic people than the general population:

  • Obesity. Hispanic Americans are 1.2 times as likely to be obese than non-Hispanic whites. This is especially important because obesity can lead to other health challenges.
  • Diabetes. About 40 percent of adults in the United States are expected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. However, more than 50 percent of Hispanics are expected to someday be diagnosed with it.
  • Hypertension (high blood pressure). Nearly 1 in 4 Hispanics has high blood pressure, which can be a precursor to a heart attack, stroke, kidney disease or heart failure.
  • Chronic kidney disease. Hispanics are 1.5 times more likely to have kidney failure compared to other Americans. In fact, 20 percent of people on the kidney transplant waiting list are Hispanic.
  • Chronic liver disease. Hispanics are at higher risk for developing certain liver diseases. Although the exact cause is unknown, it can be a result of conditions such as chronic alcoholism, obesity and exposure to hepatitis B and C viruses.
  • Cancer. Overall, cancer rates among Hispanics are generally lower. However, those who were born outside of the United States are at higher risk for specific cancers related to infections, such as stomach, liver or cervical cancer.

(Statistics from Northwestern Medicine, 2022)

In response to this information, Joshua’s House is developing all their informational print pieces and resident agreements in both Spanish and English; will have translators available to help communicate with Spanish-speaking residents; and will provide all public information, including our Good Neighbor Policy in both English and Spanish.

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2023-2024 Our Promise & United Way Campaign

by Marlene M. Fitzwater

Once again, the Health Communication Research Institute, Inc. (Joshua’s House) participated in the annual United Way campaign by staffing a table at the CalSTRS Nonprofit Outreach Program event on Thursday, October 19.

This annual event provides an opportunity for CalSTRS employees to learn about approved nonprofits and consider donating to the causes.

Chris A Ederman, D.Min., Director, the Center for Loss & Hope and Joshua’s House; Angela “Angie” Strawn, EdD, MSN, RN, Joshua’s House Board member in charge of Educational Agreements; and Barbara Fitzwater, MPA, CVA, Joshua’s House Board member in charge of Volunteer Services staffed Joshua’s House table and answered questions from CalSTRS employees.

“Someone dies on the street several times a week in Sacramento. Joshua’s House is a creative and compassionate way you can help people who otherwise would die alone and on the streets. We had many good discussions on how CalSTRS employees could support our work or receive information about the program,” Strawn said.

“As I walked around all the displays and learned about most of the organizations there, I made a point of telling them about JHVH. Most had never heard of us, but all acknowledged that the unhoused deserve to die with dignity and the care of others. It was a great learning experience for everyone; there are so many awesome organizations serving our community,” Fitzwater said.