Dear friend,

Thanks to the support of folks like you, we are halfway to our birthday giving goal. We have a goal of raising $19,000 to celebrate our 19th birthday. Although our birthday was in March, we have extended our birthday giving deadline to April 24. You can make a birthday donation here on our website. Send in your donations TODAY to celebrate our birthday with us!

This year, all donations we receive for our birthday will be used to cover housing costs for our participants. Here’s why: 

 

Our participants are most likely to achieve stability when we provide them with concrete financial support. Specifically, we know that when we use our fund to help individuals avoid homelessness and become housed, they are most likely to successfully maintain stability in the long-term. We define “stability” as housing, a means to support housing, and a supportive community to maintain housing. We understand housing to be more than an economic assessment of a person's situation. For us, housing includes many aspects of our participants’ lives, including their education, life skills, mental health, substance abuse, social support, and more.

 

We invest in our participants’ housing situations by providing them with rental assistance when they are at risk of eviction and to help them access a new home by covering their rental deposit or their first month's rent. We also help our participants with costs associated with moving: $500 of support from The Dignity Center can provide a participant with furniture for a new apartment! Any amount helps: the gifts you give to The Dignity Center will go towards supporting our participants with housing and associated costs. Donate here to support our participants in their search for housing. Housed participants are stable participants!

 

Last year, thanks to many generous donors, we met our goal of raising $18,000 for our 18th birthday. This year, our goal is to raise $19,000 for our 19th birthday. We need your help to do our work. Support us as we support our participants in their struggle to avoid homelessness, and as we provide invaluable advocacy for our participants long-term. Make your donation on our website to celebrate our birthday with us. We are grateful for your generosity!

With gratitude,

Sarah Doebler

Director of Development at The Dignity Center

The Dignity Center has been part of my life for the past 15 years. I was there when we set up in Sunday school rooms with dividers and we gave out a lot of bologna sandwiches. I have had the opportunity to volunteer with The Dignity Center in a variety of ways: as an advocate and as the chair of different committees including the program committee, the fund development committee, and the network church committee.

I have observed the Dignity Center go through several stages of ministry, starting with an idea and then going through some turbulent times with growing pains. For a time there was a period of decline before The Dignity Center evolved into a more mature, stable organization. Now, The Dignity Center is not only surviving during COVID-19, it is thriving during COVID-19 with persistence and creativity.

Throughout the different manifestations of The Dignity Center, some things never changed. We have always worked to get people in poverty on a path to stability, we just didn’t always do it in the same way.  

The Dignity Center has always been about relationships: relationships with the participants, relationships with metro churches, and relationships with community-based organizations. Now, Mary has done a remarkable job building relationships with colleges and universities to secure interns who earn academic credit while working at The Dignity Center. In addition, Todd continues to develop strong relationships with vendors.

As I reflect on why I stay connected to The Dignity Center, I realize that my reasons for staying haven’t changed either. My connection to The Dignity Center is all about the work itself, the participants, and the other volunteers. For me, the bottom line is that I have learned a lot more from volunteering at The Dignity Center than I ever contributed.