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This blog provides the top 5 highlights or updates about Family Promise of Waukesha County for Friday, December 16, 2022.
The Friday Five is a weekly blog post/update that focuses on the top five occurrences, issues, opportunities facing Family Promise each week. It is our hope that it will help you stay informed and connected to the mission of Family Promise of Waukesha County.
Our mission is to help low-income families and families experiencing homelessness achieve sustainable independence
through a community-based response.
The stories you can read this week are:
Carly was completing her education degree and student teaching when her divorce left her without any viable housing options. A friend suggests that she contact Family Promise. This is her story.
Agree or Disagree: Segregation and racial division, continues to be a significant factor in why many experience homelessness?
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
Photos this week include many donations for the holiday collection, visits to areas congregations, volunteers working on a mailing and identifying each staff member with their door! Plus a creative Christmas gift from Green Bay Packaging which promotes Family Promise.
1. HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Here are some things that are difficult to do if your home is your car or a hotel room:
Watch your children unwrap Christmas gifts from under the tree
Frost newly baked cookies or leave them out for Santa
Sit down around your table for a holiday dinner
Watch a holiday TV special
Losing one’s home is more than housing. Homelessness affects the entire person and family. This is why housing is important and why we need your help in our end of year campaign: Home for the Holidays. Our goal is to raise $100,000 to help us finish 2022 strong. Thank you to those who have helped us
raise $66,857 so far. If you are able,
we ask for a gift to help families like Ann, Carly and Crystal and give them what they need most this holiday season: A Home!
“Having a house doesn’t guarantee a child’s success; but not having one is an enormous obstacle to their success.”
2. MEALS FOR WINTER OVERFLOW
Meals are needed for those who are staying in the Waukesha Winter Overflow Emergency Shelter. This shelter is open from November to March for the purpose of keeping families and individuals out of the cold when the shelters are at capacity. The Housing Action Coalition of Waukesha County facilitates this shelter but Family Promise of Waukesha County is one of the agencies who utilizes this resource.
There is a great need for help. Please consider serving as a group or family.
3. SEGREGATION BY DESIGN
The first two sentences of this article should be startling.
“Scholars have long found that Milwaukee is one of the nation's most segregated cities. It got that way by design.”
Two UWM professors are engaged in a project that is reviewing documents from the early to mid twentieth century that made it impossible for people of color to live in certain areas of Milwaukee and surrounding suburbs. Then they are mapping the areas that made it difficult for people of color to live. These documents are evidence that the segregation that exists in Milwaukee and surrounding suburbs was not an accident and has played a significant role in housing issues felt today. It is one of the reasons why we end up with a map like this:
In May 2022, Joe Nettesheim participated in a workshop at the Home for Everyone Conference where Professor Bond spoke about their project. This was Joe’s blog post about that workshop then. Now, the project is in full swing and includes volunteers assisting them to examine deeds and covenants to identify instances that prevented people from accessing housing based on race.
POLL OF THE WEEK
Segregation and racial division (today and from the past) continues to play a significant role on why people experience homelessness.
- Agree
- Disagree
- Uncertain
4. ON THE RADIO
If you missed the interview of Joe Nettesheim on Milwaukee Philanthropic Community on November 27, you can hear his interview with Jill Economou, Director of Community Outreach at Ellenbecker Investment Group, as a podcast.
5. THANK YOU
Our hearts are filled with gratitude for so many who have provided their time, toys, supplies, and financial gifts! Here are a few to mention:
Thank you to Hope Lake Country for including Family Promise in their Christmas collection. This year their community donated $347,000! These funds will be distributed to a few area nonprofit agencies. We are grateful for the partnership with Hope Lake Country and their generosity to the community!
Thank you to all who provided Christmas gifts. Our holiday collection will serve 32 families and 67 children. The gifts will be distributed next week December 20-22.
Thank you to Bill Frederick and St Catherine of Alexandria for sponsoring the Christmas Concert "Enter the Season with Song. " We are blessed to be the beneficiary of donations from attendees totaling over $4,300! Make sure to check out this uplifting and inspiring concert.
We are grateful for recent financial gifts from ProHealth Care, WE Energies, Green Bay Packaging
The FRIDAY FIVE is taking a break for the holidays and will return on January 13.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
December 19 Board of Trustees Meeting
December 23 Offices closed
December 26 Offices closed
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You can also join our Facebook volunteer group to learn about volunteer opportunities.