Care Through Touch Community

Mission

Our Mission is to be present with human suffering and promote healing through human connection. We do this by offering free chair massage to people experiencing or at risk for homelessness. We serve in the spirit of compassion, non-judgment, and love.

Purpose

We believe healthcare and housing are basic human rights and that healthcare should address the behavioral, social, spiritual, and environmental issues that affect a person’s quality of life. Our purpose is to empower individuals who are called to care for the most traumatized and isolated amongst us and to train them how to “care through touch” so that we, together, can meet the unaddressed humanitarian needs in our community.

By creating safe environments we enable both practitioners and recipients to be in touch with the systemic issues that cause and perpetuate trauma and violence in the lives of those experiencing poverty and homelessness. Our public acts of caring through touch are intended to transform the way that society bears witness to the value/dignity of the human person. Caring touch is a radical act of justice and love that carries the potential of birthing a renewed sense of dignity and reverence for the whole person; body, mind, heart and soul.

Vision

CTI’s vision is through education, advocacy, and example to erase the stigma inflicted on people due to poverty, homelessness, racism, gender discrimination, and age; to shape a society that embodies justice and is defined by kindness, tenderness, and compassion; and to wholeheartedly live the ‘works of mercy’: nourishing the hungry, freeing the addicted, housing the homeless, healing the broken, comforting the grieving, and respecting the elders while inspiring hope and reawakening joy in a wounded world.

Values

We believe in unconditional love and respect for all beings no matter their age, sexual orientation, race, gender identity and expression, substance use, illness, disability, or income.

We honor the sacredness of every human being.

We are fiercely committed to never giving up on people, even when everyone else has.

We willingly step into intimacy vs. isolation with those who are alienated by society.

We embody a willingness to step wholeheartedly into the suffering of others.

We believe all people have strength and resiliency and recognize that people do not need to depend on us or any other agency or system.

We believe health encompasses the total well being of a person including their physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental needs.

We will work to expand and increase awareness within the western medical establishment about integrative medicine and the importance of compassionate touch.

We recognize that health care is inseparable from the broader needs of the community. These include housing, employment, and transportation; in other words, the overall health of the community.

Our Staff

Our 19 volunteers, some of whom have been with Care Through Touch for decades, come from various religious organizations and backgrounds, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the work. CTI empowers its clients to become more independent and self-sufficient, which is truly achieved only when an individual can rely upon relationships for emotional support, connection, and a sense of security. While homelessness destroys one’s sense of dignity and self-worth, we offer an antidote to those feelings by sitting with and loving people as they are and where they are. We believe that although massage alone cannot solve homelessness, small acts of love can make a profound difference in the lives of those who do not receive it regularly.