2022-100-Faces-Book - Flipbook - Page 103
Valencia
Cheerleader. Guide. Proponent.
Valencia is the CEO at GraceWorks Ministries, a United
Way partner agency that serves low-income residents
by helping with food, clothing, housing support and
financial assistance.
In her role, she doesn’t normally provide direct care
or assistance.
“I have that umbrella responsibility of keeping
the ministry running through administration
and fundraising.”
She remembers being in the office one summer
evening after her colleagues had gone home. She
heard a knock at the door—it was a gentleman in
winter clothes who had just been released from jail
and had nowhere to go.
been donated with toothpaste, a comb, a brush, razors,
soap. We found brand new underwear and sandals his
size. We had a ball as he shared his story and I listened
and dressed him and encouraged him. I offered for him
to go in our bathroom and clean himself up.”
Valencia says when he stepped out, he looked like a
new man.
“I feel like a new man,” he told her.
Valencia got him an Uber to the bus station and a bus
ticket home to his family.
“It was my delight and great pleasure to serve this man
… to offer him hope.”
Valencia grew up in an impoverished area of Chicago.
“I got arrested in the wintertime and these are all the
clothes I have,” he told her. “I didn’t know where else to
come. The police told me to come here.”
Valencia says she calls interactions like this
“divine appointments.”
“People that God has just for me,” she says.
Valencia walked him over to the GraceWorks Thrift
Store, which sells high-quality used goods such
as clothing, furniture and household items at
affordable prices.
“I was one of those kids on the free and reduced
lunches,” she says.
She went to college and received her Master of
Business Administration but says there were still times
that she was underemployed and struggling to stay
afloat. She’d bag groceries at her local supermarket
and drive delivery trucks for extra cash.
“Not being able to make ends meet—I know what that
is. I owe much because I’ve been given much and
GraceWorks is a way for me to live out my beliefs, my
compassion, my faith and my love for my fellow man.”
“I was his personal shopper. I looked at his eye color
and his size, and I was able to match them up with
shirts and shorts. There was a grooming kit that had
GraceWorks Ministries
