Amazingly 2013 has come and gone. I continue to be in awe of how fast time goes. They say the older you get the faster it goes and this certainly seems to be true for me. I have been reviewing our fiscal year numbers as we work to finalize our annual report. The audit and tax returns are almost finished and soon FY 2013 will be officially complete.
What did FY and calendar year 2013 mean for Hope House? We
celebrated 30 years of providing services in Eastern Jackson County. We
realized that 2013 was similar to 2012, we saw more need and harder to secure
resources. We served more people in shelter than 2012 and turned away more
people than ever. We provided 2,300 more Bednights than the previous year and
continue to have long waiting lists in our outreach programming. The need
continues to be very high as people continue to be victimized by domestic
violence. I long for the day that I am able to say it is no longer a problem in
our society, we have it solved. But until then we will continue our work.
We continue to be very blessed to be part of a community
that cares about the people that we work with. I am uplifted when I see
children coming in with their parents to make donations and groups coming
together with new and unique ways of raising funds and collecting needed items
from our wish lists. We continue to work to identify new funding sources to
help us meet the growing need and fund the vital services we are providing.
We want to do so much more than we are but we are doing a
lot now and I want to celebrate that and recognize that even though there is always
more that can be done. We continue to provide emergency shelter services for
over 1,100 women and children; we work with thousands in our outreach
programming and continue our valuable partnerships with law enforcement, courts
and medical personnel. Thanks to the
Jackson County Mental Health Levy fund we were able to train all of our staff
to be Trauma Informed and now we are working to secure funding to take that
training to the next level in order to provide trauma informed services. Our
Diversity Committee continues to work hard to ensure we are providing the best
service to our clients and that everyone we serve feels welcomed and accepted.
Our goals for this year include evaluating our current level
of service and identifying areas of need, and working to address those needs
through program changes or potentially providing additional services. We will
examine each program, look at what we currently provide, and determine if that is
still what we need or do we need to adapt to new presenting issues. This is
critical to do on an annual basis to ensure that we are best meeting the needs
of our clients. We may not be able to make a lot of changes due to funding
restrictions or lack of available staff, but then we prioritize our needs and
make changes more slowly, always striving to do the best we can with what we have.
Learn more at hopehouse.net
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