An Update from HOME's Executive Director

*HOME recently released our 2009 Annual Report (View the full report here). Below is this year's update from HOME's Executive Director, Cara Eule.

For most of us, not a day goes by that we don’t see reports about the current economic crisis on television or read about it in the newspaper. After a while, we tend to develop compassion fatigue- it hurts too much and hits too close to home to really internalize the enormity of this crisis. Even working with struggling families on a daily basis, it didn’t hit home for me until I drove through a neighborhood that had clearly been hit especially hard. For sale signs hung in overgrown yards, old phone books were piled up on porches, and garbage littered the swales. All of a sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks- these families hadn’t simply disappeared or fallen of the face of the earth.

One in ten families in this neighborhood was likely homeless or near homeless!

I was recently asked if it was hard to think about the good work that HOME does in terms of community impact, and the truth is yes, it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. Each day, we speak to mother after mother and child after child whose day-to-day existence includes worrying about meals, having no place to stay at night, and wondering whose house they can crash at next. Every job that we help a family get, every night of housing that we can provide, every meal that we put on the table, it matters. And when you add up all the jobs, all the nights of housing, and all the meals, we’re making a big difference in this community.

This past year was a busy and tough year for HOME, as I suspect it was for many of our local agencies that serve families. HOME’s story for the year is similar to that of the families we serve — money was tight, our time and resources were stretched, but with the unfaltering support of our investors, community members, and local government, we were able to make it through. In a time when as many as one-third of local agencies are shutting their doors, we persevered.

In the Annual Report you will find accomplishments for the year, as well as an excerpts from a letter recently written by a graduate of our residential program. If you have donated your time or resources to HOME, these words were written for you- we couldn’t have done it without your support, and we can’t continue to help families without you. If you made a contribution to HOME last year, please consider renewing that gift, as well as sharing our story with others. Thank you again for helping others make the effort!

Sincerely,

Cara Eule, HOME Executive Director Sphere: Related Content