Intake freeze

By now you may have heard or read in our March newsletter that we have instituted an intake freeze at Hope Alive. This means that even though we have beds available, we do not have the resources or staff required to continue to operate at capacity. Jody - our Family Ministry Specialist - is not only intensely working with our current resident families on a daily basis, but she also serves our growing number of families in the after-care phase with more graduations scheduled in the coming months. Families graduating from Hope Alive's residential phase are a great cause for celebration, but our reality says we can no longer do more with less.

Our 2010 operating budget provides for three new part-time staff positions to work with an increasing number of families, but until we can increase our income and solve our cash flow problem we are forced to maintain an intake freeze. For Hope Alive - as is typical with nonprofit organizations - half of our charitable gifts are received the last 3 months of the year during the holiday season. We're working hard to correct this by raising an additional $55,000 by June!

This decision is painful in light of the phone calls from homeless families we continue to receive. We just want to ignore our reality and take them in anyway, but this isn't fair to all the families who already call Hope Alive home. Above all, we don't want to jeopardize the core services they already receive that are so effective in moving them forward to health, wholeness, and stable permanent housing.

Please help us spread the word and join us in our efforts to serve as many homeless families as possible in 2010. One fun way you can help is to attend our upcoming Visions for Hope event on Thursday, April 29. This is a silent auction of children's artwork - including our own Hope Alive kids - to support our children's programs for our youngest residents.

Check out our website at http://www.hopealiveministries.org/ or call us at 301.241.4005 for more information. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Until next week ...

Sue Oehmig
Founder and Executive Director