The poster for this year's Homeless USA Cup (in Charlotte Aug 19th and 20th) was created by artist Johnnie Mae Murray, a formerly homeless women who credits the Art Works 945 program at the Urban Ministry Center (www.communityworks945) with helping her end a 10-year span she spent living on the street, not confronting her mental disability. Johnnie Mae has become not only a recognized artist but a powerful spokesperson for the homeless, as well as a volunteer art teacher in the housing project community where she now lives in Charlotte. She won a Hometown Hero Award in 2004. Last year, she followed the team organized by the Urban Minsitry Center that traveled to Homeless World Cup 2005. Johnnie says, "I believe that the soccer team can provide the same sustaining and self-affirming force for others that art has done for me." Our thoughts and prayers are with Johnnie Mae as she now begins another courgeous battle, this time against breast cancer.
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