Hollywood Stars Celebrate LA-Based Ministry’s Work With Homeless
By Movieguide® Contributor
Some of Hollywood’s stars recently gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Los Angeles’ Dream Center.
“The Dream Center serves as a resource center focused on providing support to those affected by homelessness, hunger, and the lack of education through residential and community outreach programs,” its website reads.
Pastor Matthew Barnett, the founder of the Dream Center, told Christianity Today, “Our approach is this: Don’t look for your cause. Just use what you have in your hand, and your cause will find you. Honestly, what we do is so easy to reproduce. It is finding the joy of ministering to people who can give you nothing in return.”
The ministry offers a multitude of outreach programs, including housing, disaster relief, food banks, foster care intervention and human trafficking rescue.
“We’ve seen the changes that this place makes,” former football star and actor Terry Crews told Movieguide® while attending the Night of Dreams event. “What’s so amazing is that, being in Hollywood and a ‘celebrity life,’ you see people talking. You see very few people doing. And so it’s been very important to my wife and I that we really only support those who are doing.”
He continued, “The fact that this place really, really does something about the tremendous homelessness problem that we have here in Los Angeles, and all the other issues…it’s aptly named. So many people come to LA to get a dream, so it makes it so perfect.”
Crews, who served as the event’s host, praised the Dream Center for its one-year commitment to help those in need.
“The gift that you get is time,” he explained. “They’re really investing the time for people’s lives to change.”
Actress Madeline Carroll shared that she has been “involved with them since I was about 16,” explaining that she “got my GED through the Dream Center.”
“They do everything and they don’t want anything in return,” the actress said.
E! News host Jason Kennedy said, “[The Dream Center’s] movement is people. The movement is need — the things that you see, unfortunately, a lot of in Los Angeles — and to realize that it’s actually so easy to make a difference.”
“[It’s] proven itself on the streets of Los Angeles all the way up to the elite of Hollywood who are here tonight,” Matt Finn, Fox News correspondent, added. “It’s a genuine honor to be a part of this ministry and this program tonight.”
Movieguide® previously reported on actor Dwayne Johnson’s visit to the Dream Center:
Actor Dwayne Johnson shocked a community when he showed up at The Dream Center in Los Angeles to offer encouragement, love and kindness to men and women in need.
Matthew Barnett, a pastor and the founder of the ministry, was in his office when a staff member told him that Lauren Hashian—Johnson’s wife—was dropping by with a donation. He went to meet her and help bring her donation in when he noticed Johnson in the car.
“I’m just walking down, getting ready to say ‘thank you’ as we take all of her stuff out of the car,” he told CBN’s Faithwire. “The Rock’s in the back talking to someone on the phone.”
Barnett didn’t want to bother the actor, but Johnson jumped out of the car and started meeting the staff, excited to hear more about the ministry.
“He’s like, ‘Hey, how are you guys doing?’” Barnett said. “Engaging people in the most real, normal level. I’m thinking, ‘How much time does he really want to spend here?’”
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