Straight Talk, No B.S., with Matthew's Hope presented by Imagine Marketing

“There were times where I just wanted to die.” ~KatieIn this week’s episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Shelley rejoin Katie, a current guest of the Moving Forward Program, for part II of this installation of our Real Faces of Homelessness series.If you missed part I of Katie’s story, we highly encourage you to watch episode 112 to learn how her life unraveled and how much trauma she endured. In part II, you will hear how dramatically her life has turned around since she found her way to the Orange County campus of Matthew’s Hope and joined the Moving Forward Program.Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #homelessawareness #unhoused

***This episode contains accounts of abuse in various forms, including sexual. Viewer discretion is advised.In this episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Shelley continue their Real Faces of Homelessness series with Katie, a current guest of Matthew’s Hope. Katie shares how her life started out “normal.” Growing up in a stable home with loving parents, graduating from college, having a successful corporate job and buying her first home at age 26. But then things quickly unraveled. Her life spiraled completely out of control and she found herself homeless and eventually on the verge of death. This episode is part I of II with Katie so be sure to follow up next week to learn about the complete transformation she is in the midst of thanks to the support of Matthew’s Hope. Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

“Don’t talk about it. Be about it.” ~JeffIn this week’s episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Tracy are joined by Jeff Bondy who is the Director of Business Development for Bondy Law. Jeff’s father was once a guest of Matthew’s Hope. Pastor Scott and Jeff discuss the services that Jeff’s father received as well as the challenges he presented. They also share the importance of giving back and uplifting those in your community rather than putting them down.Plus, at the time of our filming the United States was one week into a new war with Iran and the Pentagon was estimating it was costing taxpayers $1 billion/day. Hear their reaction to that and how it makes them feel to hear that in comparison to the amount of taxpayer funds available to help support services for those in our communites who are struggling.Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

“I am still a success story.” ~JanineIn this episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Shelley catch up with Janine, a former guest of Matthew’s Hope as part of our Real Faces of Homelessness series. Janine spent a significant amount of time in the Moving Forward program before choosing to leave before graduation. What may have seemed like a failure at the time ended up being an incredible success as you will learn in this episode as Janine shares some incredible news that catches Scott by complete surprise.Learn what lead to Janine finding herself homeless with her daughter and what tools and skills she learned from Matthew’s Hope that helped her turn her entire life around.Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

In Episode 109 of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Shelley are joined by Shelley’s husband Darren.Darren shares what it is like to view Matthew’s Hope and the work they do through hist lens as the spouse of the President of the organization. Learn how his awareness level of our homelessness crisis has changed through the years and what he wishes more people knew about what is happening in their communities.Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

“Human beings are nesting animals.”In this episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Tracy are joined by Brian Postlewait who is the Chief Operating Officer of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida.Brian shares the concept of HomeMore which he examined in a recent article. He explains how more home comes before full home and that, as human, we are always trying to make some semblance of home wherever we are. Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

In this week’s episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Shelley discuss the growing baby boomer problem. Learn what factors are causing a significant increase in the number of older Americans finding themselves homeless for the first time and how Matthew’s Hope is having to adapt to serve them. The Moving Forward Program has always been about moving someone towards a life of independence and self-sustainability and often includes learning new skills, going to school for a trade and starting a new career. That is easier said than done if you are in your 60s or 70s.Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

In Episode 106 of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Tracy are joined once again by Lee Perry, the founder of Lee Perry Strategies LLC. Be sure to watch last week’s episode if you haven’t already seen part I with Lee.This week the discussion is centered on inspiring more support for nonprofits. Lee explains that her goal is to inspire enough financial support for organizations like Matthew’s Hope so that they can focus on serving their guests rather than fundraising and grant writing. Lee also gives example of how powerful each of our voices can be and how much influence we can have even if we can’t make financial donations.Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #homelessawareness #unhoused

In Episode 105 of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Tracy are joined by Lee Perry, founder of Lee Perry Strategies LLC to discuss the importance of local politics and getting involved.They share details of a proposed shelter project in Orlando that was scrapped before it got started in part due to public outrage from people that were poorly informed and fully bought into many of the stigmas and stereotypes this podcast aims to dispel.Lee shares her experiences from her own civic engagement and encourages viewers and listeners to educate themselves and become involved in their own communities to help impact the change they want to see. Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida #civicengagement

In this episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Shelley discuss how their need for support and volunteers extends year-round. Many people are inspired to support those in their communities in need during the season of giving but then lose that spark for the following 10 months. Scott and Shelley share the importance of their donors and volunteers spreading their giving throughout the year to greatly help with budgeting and being prepared for sudden needs such as having to open as a cold shelter. Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today. To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/ #homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

In this episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Tracy are joined by Brian Postlewait, the COO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida.In this episode Scott and Brian discuss changes to HUD policies and how they impact the growing homeless crisis in our area. Brian talks about what he would like to see from communities of faith in response to policies and actions that are currently impacting our most vulnerable populations. Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

In this episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott and Shelley outline some of the goals for Matthew’s Hope in 2026 along with some of the challenges they expect to continue to face.Hear how they expect the demographic of homelessness in central Florida to evolve in the coming year and what they are doing to evolve along with it. You will also hear their plans for rolling out their highly anticipated sleeper buses in several municipalities and what else still needs to fall into place to make them successful.Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

In Episode 101 of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, we wanted to look back and share a compilation of some of the most impactful moments from the first 100 episodes. We have come a long way from episode 1 until now and we thank everyone that has come along for the journey. Our guests have included individuals currently experiencing homelessness, former guests that have graduated from the program, local political and community leaders, colleagues and counterparts from other organizations and many more.From the outset, our goal has been to educate people about the realities of the homelessness crisis in our community and our country. We hope to dispel and debunk many of the stigmas and stereotypes often applied to those experiencing homelessness. Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida

In the 100th episode of Straight Talk, No B.S. with Matthew’s Hope, presented by Imagine Marketing, Pastor Scott, Shelley and Tracy examine the origins of this podcast and discuss whether they are made progress towards the goals they set forth for it. Far less than 1% of podcasts make it to 100 episodes so this is a milestone to be celebrated. They also discuss what Christmas looks like for those in our communities experiencing homelessness. Hear how they approach collecting toys and other gifts for their guests and how it compares to traditional toy drives or organizations that allow you to “adopt a family for Christmas.”Each week, Pastor Scott, Shelley and guests share their experiences from operating a homeless outreach in Florida's Orange and Brevard Counties to raise awareness and tackle some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the homeless crisis in America today.To learn more or to donate, visit: https://www.matthewshopeministries.org/#homeless #homelessness #ministry #dignity #orangecounty #brevardcounty #crisis #homelessawareness #unhoused #florida