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A Vision Realized
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| Quadrangle Apartments |
The vision— realized. Our vision— realized.
The vision of providing affordable housing for formerly
homeless women and their children. This occasion marks
the beginning of a transition for The Haven of Grace,
now a residential facility for homeless pregnant women
and their children and becoming a campus with an additional
12 units of apartments where women and their children
will continue to struggle, bond with another and become
responsible parents together.
In order for The Haven to bring this
vision to fruition, we needed someone to provide financial
leadership for the capital fundraising campaign. My
deepest gratitude goes to Mr. and Mrs. Michael H. Moisio
for providing this leadership. Lee and Mike, on behalf
of the Board of Directors, I say thank you. For myself
personally, I say thank you. I have long anticipated
the right moment to express my appreciation for your
gift. Thank you for responding seemingly effortlessly
to my call for assistance. Thank you for providing the
Moisio Challenge—a dollar-for-dollar match up to $160,000
for new donors to The Haven and to the Capital Campaign.
By crafting this challenge in this way, you have strengthened
the organization with new donors and widened support;
you have provided affordable housing for those who need
it most; and more importantly, you have changed the
course of destiny for formerly destitute women. Now
they have a chance to become great mothers, college
students, faithful employees, homeowners and taxpaying
citizens. Thank you for your faith in The Haven of Grace
and for your faith in me. I thank God for you.
With the efforts of so many people,
we are able to move from where we started at 1133 Benton
almost 20 years ago to this new campus. It is fulfilling
to see us take this next critical step of becoming a
campus for nurturing families with the opportunity to
have our older residents, who will be living in the
apartments, teaching and mentoring the younger incoming
Haven residents—showing them that there is hope for
independence. Hope for a bright future.
With this new housing, the three-step
process of The Haven will be made stronger. A woman
living in these apartment units will be a Haven of Grace
shelter graduate where the first two steps occur: 1)
She will have learned to cook and clean; care for her
infant and other children; and run a household during
her six-month stay. 2) She will have initiated or completed
an educational goal plan that may include obtaining
a GED, pursuing college courses or obtaining employment
skills. Then she will move onto the apartments where
she will have more independence but continue to have
accountability. She will continue her educational goal
plan or obtain employment. We can imagine this woman
getting up early, preparing her infant for daycare while
she goes to work, or seeks employment skills as a certified
nurses assistant, a food service worker or takes college
classes. The 2-or 3-bedroom apartments will be well-appointed;
however, everything will not be handed to her. The struggle
will continue.
Rent will be assessed for each apartment
at 30% of income. She will be solely responsible for
getting to and from her place of employment or education.
And when she returns home at the end of the day, she
will be cooking for her own family using her own resources.
The stay in the apartments will be up to two years.
She may obtain permanent housing anytime before then.
This should be enough time to complete educational and
employment goals before she is totally independent.
This is a picture of the campus of
caring that is the Quadrangle that began with a generous
and talented cadre of supporters who have helped us
at every step. It is an honor to be gathered here at
this time for this wall raising. The staff and I are
motivated to continue to inspire young women and offer
the unique service that is The Haven of Grace.
So I thank you all as partners in the
process of creating productive families. This is what
The Haven really is about— eliminating homelessness
in our community. IT’S MORE THAN A PLACE, IT’S A PROCESS!
I praise God for the efforts of all of you and all of
us. We are proud to celebrate the construction of THE
QUADRANGLE — ON THE CAMPUS– OF THE HAVEN OF GRACE!
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