A message from David Gillanders, Executive Director
Hello friends of Pathways!
Happy 2020! Pathways of Hope is incredibly excited for what is on the horizon this year, and very grateful to YOU for being a loyal supporter of our work to end homelessness and hunger in North Orange County.
2019 brought with it many exciting new things for Pathways of Hope:
New Affordable Housing
We strategically realigned our resources and converted four of our buildings from temporary shelter into permanent affordable housing for our community’s most vulnerable families.
Thanks to vast amounts of research, data, and the anecdotal information gained from working in one of the most expensive and supply-shortened housing markets in the country, we know that this is the most effective approach to ending family homelessness.
Rest assured – we will still shelter the same number of homeless families annually as we did before converting our shelter space to permanent housing.
How is this possible? We moved away from providing expensive, long-term, transitional housing so we can help more people more effectively by offering emergency shelter to families escaping homelessness.
This is our vision: a community in which no man, woman, or especially child, lacks a place to call home.
Expanded Housing Services at the HUB
We expanded the services being offered at our HUB resource center to offer more resources for families and individuals on the brink of homelessness.
Every day, we hear stories from our community members about the struggle of simply paying the rent in this challenging housing market.
We know that keeping people from entering into homelessness – keeping people housed – should be a top priority for sustaining a high-level of community health. I want everyone to have a safe, stable place to call home, and I know you do too.
New College Food and Service Navigation Program
We launched our new College Food and Service Navigation programming at Fullerton College, Cypress College, and the North Orange Continuing Education (NOCE) campus in Anaheim.
At Fullerton and Cypress, we amplified two pre-existing food pantries and added critical service navigation and linkage to housing services for students with unstable housing. At NOCE, we started a brand-new food pantry and service center entirely from scratch.
Together, these sites serve well over 500 students per week. When we consider the number of family members impacted by these students’ use of this program, we are touching as many as 1,500 lives each week.
We are so grateful to our supporters for giving these struggling students this critical support in their time of need.
$2.5 Million from the Jeff Bezos Day One Family Foundation
Pathways was nationally recognized as a leader in family homelessness work as a recipient of the 2019 Jeff Bezos Day 1 Family Foundation grant in the amount of $2.5 million.
While this is an incredible gift and acknowledgement of our team’s amazing work, we continue to need your support.
This funding will support very specific projects – stay tuned for more news very soon! – however to keep our current operations functioning and the quality and success of our programs high, we still need the support of you and the entire community.
Whether you’re interested in donating, volunteering, or advocating on behalf of people experiencing hunger and homelessness, please get in touch with us so we can work as a team to make a difference in North Orange County.
Join us in 2020!
We have new board members, new volunteers, new opportunities to engage, and all of the energy and excitement necessary to tackle these tough issues in our community.
Commit to joining us in 2020! Pathways of Hope is the safest investment for anyone looking to help our poor and vulnerable community members.
Thanks for all you do to help our community be safer, healthier and more prosperous for everyone.
With gratitude,
David Gillanders
Executive Director
(714) 680-3691 ext. 233
dgillanders@pohoc.org
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