Moving Waters Brings Radical Hospitality® to Houston, Texas
August 20, 2021
Through consulting and seed funding, LavaMaeˣ works with Moving Waters to bring mobile showers and Radical Hospitality® to the streets of Houston, Texas.
The Moving Waters Backstory
For Founder Jennifer Park, a life dedicated to serving her community started when she was growing up in Texas volunteering with her parents serving people experiencing homelessness. This inspired her to study Occupational Therapy in college, getting a master’s degree and soon working in the hospital system. One day, while doing an evaluation on a patient recovering from a stroke, the patient was finally able to take a shower and told Jennifer, “I feel like a brand-new person! I feel so renewed I haven’t showered in over two weeks.”
After seeing her patient go through this experience, it clicked for Jennifer. “Who needs this more than the unhoused?” she says. The calling for her to do more for people on the street came soon after. She left the corporate healthcare system, partnered with her parents, formed a Board of Directors and a certified Moving Waters as a 501c3 non-profit organization in September 2019. After that, they began fundraising to purchase a mobile shower trailer with an October 2020 launch date.
Plans were moving along until COVID-19 hit, and everything had to be put on hold. Despite this tremendous hurdle, Moving Waters was able to raise 51% of its fundraising goal in 2020. Throughout the rest of that year, Moving Waters was able to form valuable partnerships such as the Magnificat House, Northwest Assistance Ministries, Tomball United Methodist Church, Tomball Police Department, and the Tomball Chamber of Commerce to help with advising, outreach, and community buy-in. The Tomball Regional Health Foundation also made a significant contribution that helped fund the purchase of their truck, and in May 2021 Moving Waters successfully launched!
Radical Hospitality in Action
Radical Hospitality is at the core of Moving Waters’ mission to relieve immediate suffering and promote the long-term dignity of the whole person. Staff and volunteers walk up to guests, rather than them coming up to them, ask for their names, invite them to sit down alongside them, listen to music, walk them to their shower stall with a fresh towel and hygiene kit, and will gladly give and receive hugs.
One day, a woman stumbled upon Moving Waters not knowing about the showers. “She was living in her car, was anticipating a job interview, and really needed to wash her hair.” Says Jennifer, “She came back for several weeks afterward. On her last day with us, she gave us big hugs saying her dignity has been restored to her. A few weeks later, she sent us a Facebook message saying she was at another shelter and was feeling so much better and that when she does find a job, she’ll volunteer with us!”
The Moving Waters Service Model
Every week, Moving Waters provides 20-minutes showers at three locations in the Houston area for four hours a day. The trailer has three stalls (one ADA accessible) with toilets and different artwork such as “under the sea” and “tropical” themes. Alongside the mobile shower trailer are tubs full of hygiene kits, underwear, and socks for shower guests.
Jennifer is the only staff member of Moving Waters, but with volunteers and a 5-member Board of Directors, they plan to expand a fleet of showers across the Houston area in the next five years. They are already making progress, as they are currently fundraising for a second shower trailer!
Adapting to COVID-19
Providing shower service during COVID-19 has been a big priority since launching in the Pandemic. They have rigorous cleaning protocols, PPE such as gloves and masks, and ensure all staff is vaccinated while partnering with providers to administer vaccines to guests who need them.
Part of their protocols has been adopted from LavaMaeˣ’s COVID-19 Protocols and from attending virtual events about COVID-19 on the LavaMaeˣ Connect community platform.
How LavaMaeˣ Helped
Dating back to early 2019, LavaMaeˣ has been mentoring Jennifer and the Moving Waters team since she contacted us to bring mobile showers to her community. Jennifer joined the LavaMaeˣ 1:1 Mentorship program and partnered with LavaMaeˣ Program Consultant Javier de Leon.
Javier spent a lot of time with Moving Waters, working to direct them to resources and grant opportunities, sent over shower trailer specifications, showed how to streamline guest service, and how to do community outreach to promote the program for guests.
LavaMaeˣ also supported Moving Waters with seed funding through its partnership with The Right To Shower--a social enterprise that donates 30% of profits from its line of head-to-toe cleansers to support hygiene services for people experiencing homelessness across the United States. After seeing the incredible momentum and success Moving Waters accomplished in 2020, LavaMaeˣ and The Right To Shower funded $10,500 for their first shower trailer.
“We are so thankful for LavaMaeˣ and Javier,” says Jennifer, “We even had Javier send a recorded video for our Board retreat to send words of encouragement and inspiration. He has an amazing heart!”
Keys to Success
Recognize the “serve, not save” model—that staff and volunteers prioritize making guests feel loved, supported, and taken care of
Understand that everyone is on an equal playing field, no one is above one another
Always try to change the narrative and fight the stigma around homelessness