It’s that time of year! Once again, we are incredibly blessed to have generous donors providing up to $33,000 in matching gift funds! We are excited to share that we have been challenged to exceed our goal this year. IF we raise a total of $100,000 in donations, God’s Grace Fund will donate an additional $25,000 to Reach! We challenge you to take advantage of this opportunity to donate once and make twice the impact between now and December 31, 2023.
Our mission is to support and strengthen the community by preventing and resolving homelessness in Washington County. We empower individuals and families to move toward independence and stability through compassion, education, advocacy, and resources.
We serve the homeless, nearly homeless, and working poor residents of Washington County. As the needs in our community have drastically increased over the last two years, we anticipate the needs in the coming year to be equal to or greater than last year. We are committed to shortening the length of homelessness and stabilizing a household as soon as possible.
Some of our highlights of the FY23 include:
- 211 individuals aged 19-75 stayed in the cold weather shelter, totaling 6,432 bed nights.
- Case managers served 169 individuals and helped 69 individuals obtain permanent housing, 64 gained employment or job training, and 30 completed mental health referrals.
- Bridge To Change had 37 participants who covered 693.6 miles and removed over 153,120 gallons of trash.
- Served 3,745 individuals through our DRC and Crisis Intervention program. $273,732.94 crisis dollars supported 619 households (1,068 individuals) with the prevention of evictions and utility shutoffs as well as assistance with security deposits, rent, ID cards, and birth certificates.
- Financial Literacy served 216 individuals with practical money management skills with a curriculum aimed at low-income households. (330 within the collaborative).
Your support will help us assist more people, ensuring more needs of our community are met.
- $1,000 will provide first month’s rent or security deposit toward permanent housing.
- $500 will aid toward eviction prevention or utility shut-off prevention.
- $250 will provide one Bridge to Change shift.
- $100 will provide a warm bed for a homeless person for two nights.
- $50 will provide a warm bed for a homeless person for one night.
- $25 will provide an ID card or birth certificate.
We want to extend a big “thank you” to these gracious Match grant donors: Anonymous, John and Teresa Barr Family, Ellsworth Electric, God’s Grace Fund, Hebron Mennonite Church, Hagerstown Church of the Nazarene, and Margaret Louise Harrison in Honor of her children Hillary Smith Wade and Hunter Harrison Wade.
Donations can be sent with the enclosed return envelope or online at https://reachofwc.org/donate/. A PayPal account is required to donate online; however, PayPal Giving Fund does not charge us any fees.