Children are shaped by the pressures of the adult world. Stress, violence, poverty, hunger, and unstable housing all affect how their brains and bodies grow. The one thing that can help a child grow up healthy through these challenges is a present, caring mentor.
Presencia provides the transformative mentoring that children need as they grow. But what happens when children constantly have to move due to poverty and a changing market?
We often lose our most vulnerable students and potential community leaders due to unstable housing.
This realization sparked a hope in me. Three years ago, I started praying and talking with friends, supporters, and partners about the possibility of helping Presencia families with affordable housing so that we could have a greater long-term impact in the lives of our students.
We have looked closely at two kinds of help our neighbors need: crisis and long-term. It took a few years of prayer, conversation, and partnering, but we have found ways to move forward on both!
We’re finalizing our long-term housing initiative, but we’ve been thrilled to develop a way to help families in crisis during the last year. When the coronavirus hit, we developed a “Good Neighbor Fund” to help keep our loved ones in the neighborhood.
Thanks to the generosity of the Presencia family, we were able to keep 12 students in the neighborhood through rent assistance, while easing financial stress for more than 30 other families by distributing over $9,000 in gift cards for a local grocery store.
As the pandemic drags on, needs are increasing. Three more families have asked for rent assistance this month, and we would like to help them!
Hope sees a better world, finds an opening, and welcomes that world into the neighborhood.
If you want to help us usher in a better world for the children in our neighborhood, you can donate to Presencia’s “Good Neighbor” fund by clicking the Donate button in the menu above.
Thank you for all you do to envision and realize hope in this neighborhood!