Five minutes with… ImpactHK’s founder and CEO Jeff Rotmeyer
Moving to the city to teach English over 16 years ago, Jeff Rotmeyer has always been passionate about charity work. He began coaching football to refugees and asylum seekers in his free time soon after his arrival.
As the second most expensive city in the world, housing has been an ongoing problem for many residents. But it wasn’t until Rotmeyer was introduced to a park in Sham Shui Po and saw over a hundred individuals sleeping around the area. That was when he understood the true extent of Hong Kong’s issue with homelessness. “I never thought of the homeless or knew there was even a problem here. I was completely blind to the issue,” he says.
He set up ImpactHK in 2017, intending to simply distribute meals to the less fortunate outside once per month. In just four years the non-profit organisation has served over 500 meals daily and has helped nearly 400 individuals off the streets. “The homeless issue continues to get worse year by year. However, through ImpactHK we’ve seen thousands of volunteers coming together to care and stand up for those experiencing homelessness.”
Through fundraising, volunteer programmes and Kindness Walks, ImpactHK has been tackling homelessness as holistically as possible. The non-profit organisation even has its own community centre, Centre 29 in Tai Kok Tsui where people can go for shelter and food support, along with daily activities, mental health support programmes, senior support, employment assistance programmes and more. “We see new people coming through our doors daily and distribute 300 meal boxes seven days a week. Centre 29 is a place where people are welcomed and safe,” says Rotmeyer.
This year also saw the opening of ImpactHK’s first retail store 1ofaKIND. The store sells high-quality clothing samples from top designer brands at low prices. They also employ individuals who were previously homeless and raises funds to give others an opportunity. Not only are the staff in the store previously homeless but almost 50 percent of ImpactHK’s staff and volunteers are individuals whom they first met sleeping outside. “It’s been amazing to see so many people making it a priority in their lives to do what they can to support. The results of that care show”.
For many organizations throughout the city and world, the past few years have been financially challenging, with donations dropping. ImpactHK has also seen a large increase in homelessness. The average age of homelessness getting younger and a doubling in female homelessness. “Our work is challenging to say the least but I couldn’t be more proud of our team for their constant care and hard work. Every day we are doing our very best to give this community outside, who are facing incredible pain and challenges, the very best opportunity we can”.
This Christmas the non-profit organisation will be fundraising for our Full Time Assistants Programme. It employs individuals off the streets to care for and help people who are in similar situations. Over the next year, ImpactHK is aiming to improve its mental health and drug rehabilitation programme. They will also continue to give everyone more opportunities and services.
