By Caitlin Kelly | Grants and Relationship Manager
After spending the summer and early autumn back at our home in Ss. Peter & Paul Church, in November, we once again relocated our program to Huntington Place (formerly the TCF Center) for the winter months. Although we miss our homebase, we are grateful to have the ability to operate from a space like Huntington Place, enabling us to serve our guests in the warmth of indoors while maintaining social distancing to ensure the safety of our guests and volunteers. Despite the on-going challenges posed by COVID-19, we continue to provide our guests with two nutritious meals per day, hot showers, laundry services, housing advocacy, and case management. We are also able to continue offering a range of clinics such as legal assistance, dental care, and medical care, including COVID-19 vaccinations. Once again, with the winter months setting in, we are seeing our daily number of guests increasing to 200+ individuals per day. With increased demand for the resources and services we provide, we are grateful for the support of our donors to make sure we can meet the needs of our guests. Thanks to their generous support, in the past year, we proudly served 86,843 meals, provided 2,958 showers, washed 4,179 loads of laundry, and importantly, vaccinated 200+ guests against COVID-19.
With colder temperatures fast approaching, our thoughts frequently turn to the safety of our guests who remain unhoused. Michigan winters take a toll on all of us, but this is especially true for our most vulnerable citizens. Freezing temperatures and inclement weather can be fatal to those living on the streets, and our staff and volunteers continue to build trusting relationships to help our guests make that transition. Rondell is a perfect example of that love in action. Every day, Rondell proudly wears a Pope Francis Center lanyard with a key on the end. The key unlocks the new apartment he received in late October, following a long stretch of housing instability and homelessness. For over five years, Pope Francis Center has been Rondell's #SanctuaryfortheSeason—and we're thrilled that he now has a place to call home. Success stories like Rondell’s are only possible through the support of donors like you.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
