(NewsNation Now) — A Palm Beach, Florida man is using his life experience to help break the stigma connected to living on the street.
Francky Pierre-Paul was kicked out of his home when he was 16 years old. He spent a lot of time couch-surfing and sleeping on park benches. Now he’s the CEO and founder of A Different Shade of Love, which is a nonprofit supporting the homeless.
“It’s all about knowing and understanding your purpose,” Pierre-Paul said about starting his nonprofit. “You know, a lot of times people take their past and they try to hide it or hide behind a mask. For me, it was more so using my journey to help educate, empower, and let everybody know, ‘You know, sometimes we fall on our ends. And we need that help up or that hand up.'”
A Different Shade of Love believes that every person, regardless of their economic situation, deserves to be treated with dignity, shown respect and given a second chance at living a meaningful and normal life, according to its mission statement.
“I want to be that breath of fresh air,” he said.
Pierre-Paul talks about the need for compassion and empathy in everyday life.
“We need to be more aware about the surroundings,” he said. “We have a lot of people that are on the streets that still working nine to five. They just can’t pay a rent they can’t afford.”
“Some people just can’t sympathize, which is OK,” he said. “But if you can empathize and listen, you know, next time you see somebody on the street, you pull over your car and you have a simple conversation, you probably just talked that person out of suicide. You never know.”
Pierre-Paul suggests bridging resources together to help people who are struggling with mental illnesses that can lead to homelessness.
“There’s a lot of small organizations, big organizations that cater to mental health illness, if we were all to bridge ourselves together and bring it all into one place, one resource, it wouldn’t be hard for our homeless neighbors to get there,” he said.
Pierre-Paul explains, “The issue sometimes is bus passes, issue sometimes is car rides, issue sometimes is ‘I have too much belongings, I can’t leave it here if I do, you know, people steal my things.’ So it’s really honing in and actually bringing those services to our homeless neighbors instead of having them have to come into a building a physical building where sometimes it’s just not feasible for them.”
You can learn more about A Different Shade of Love on its website.
Watch the full interview with Francky Pierre-Paul in the video player at the top of the page.