Shelter House, U of Iowa collaborate to form choir

BY SARAH BULMER

The sound of music floated through the halls of the Shelter
House. Ten choir members, including several residents, sat in a
small room singing “Prayer, Love, Light, and Peace.”

The sound drifted into the lobby, where fellow residents slowly
trickled in to listen.

“When we were singing, some residents stopped by, and [some] of
them even sang some phrases with us,” said Hsin-Yi Cheng, a
University of Iowa music-therapy graduate student from Taiwan and a
central organizer of the Shelter House choir.

James Mitchell, a Shelter House resident from Iowa, played “The
Nazarene,” by Michael Card, on an acoustic guitar, as he sang, “For
he was unlike any other man / And yet so much like me.”

The choir is the result of a collaborative effort between
residents and volunteers from the UI. The program, which started
rehearsals three weeks ago, is just one of several initiatives at
the Shelter House’s new location, 429 Southgate Ave., that aims to
educate the community about homelessness and build client
connections to a community beyond homeless shelter volunteers.

“The client [is] able to form relationships with people who are
focused on things other than their current crisis,” said Phoebe
Trepp, the Shelter House’s director of program
development.