Relief is Coming

Greetings!

Monsoon season is always a welcome time for New Mexico. The rain sweeping through is like a sigh of relief, leaving us feeling reassured and prepared for the rest of the year.

It also heralds an exciting time at Saranam: welcoming the ten new families to our community! For them, Saranam evokes a feeling like that first smell of rain on the horizon. Relief is coming. And it will be the groundwork for growth.

As we meet these new faces, it is encouraging to know that the changes they make in the next two years will last a lifetime. The continued success of our alumni tells us that Saranam is just their beginning.

We are in touch with 76 percent of the families who were in our program. Continuing these relationships adds rich value all to we do, from informing how we structure our programming to offering role models for families who are in the midst of transition.

Staying in touch also enables us to track their long-term outcomes and study the longitudinal impact of our program.

See the 2023 report from our partnership with the UNM Evaluation Lab.

One of the primary ways we glean insight into family stability post-exit is through our annual alumni survey. Here is snapshot from our 2022 survey:

85 percent of our families have remained housed a year after exiting
19 percent own their own home
62 percent live above the poverty line
40 percent have at least $500 in checking or savings account
68 percent remain involved in their community

Their feedback also provides important information about how our structure helped families grow in community, financial confidence, and resilience.

Looking back at your time in Saranam what was most helpful and how did it impact your life?

Teaching my children and I routine and structure.
The weekly one-on-one case management meetings were helpful in keeping updated with life skills and money management
Gardening-we grow a large portion of our spring and summer food now
Learning that we were worth putting the time in for.
Community- being able to build my trust in people back to a point where I could feel safe to be involved

Alumni show us that, just like our beloved summer monsoons, they left Saranam feeling revitalized, their coffers refilled and prepared for the journey ahead.

Faces of Saranam

Welcome to the newest member of our team, Joell Ackerman! Joell is joining us as our Director of Operations and will be in charge of all the nuts and bolts of what makes Saranam hum, including daily processes, personnel management, and strategic planning.

"I am thrilled to be a part of an organization that has a proven record of empowering families to end the cycle of homelessness and poverty through education. To work alongside such dedicated staff and families and participate in their stories of success is a privilege."

Joell has worked with individuals experiencing homelessness for over a decade and also brings with her a wealth of knowledge from her time in the military and other nonprofit and corporate organizations. On top of all of her experience, she is also an avid pickleball player, so grab your racket and help us wave "hello" to her!

Chances are if you have been to Saranam in the last five years, you have seen something that Jenn Walsh has had a hand in.

Jenn has been volunteering with Saranam since 2018 and has enhanced every part of our mission with her energy and caring. She is one of our biggest cheerleaders- introducing dozens of friends to us and nominating us for awards, donations and more.

One of Jenn's favorite things at Saranam is preparing apartments. She and her team pour themselves into making a family's time in their home feel like a warm hug. She told us about why it means so much to her in our latest blog. It's a must read!

Read Jenn's blog here

Program Highlights

Early Childhood Education

Did you know that children who participate in early childhood education programs are 25 percent more likely to graduate from high school? Or that it will have life-long health benefits including lower rates of depression and cardiovascular disease?

Research abounds with the benefits of early childhood education and it all starts at home. That's why, as a 2Gen program, we ensure families can access quality care and feel prepared to make their home a place for rich connections and exciting exploration.

Our parenting class and guest speakers from the Methodist Children's Home teach adults the stages of child development and how to empathetically communicate with their kids.
In family nights, and through creative partnerships such as Explora, we share ideas to incorporate learning into the home.
Case managers and guest speakers like NAAPR build parents' confidence in their capacity to advocate for their children's learning needs.

"(Because of Saranam), I show more affection, tell them I love them. I learned the importance of doing that... now we have lots of hugs. Our family is changing." -Saranam alumni

By the time they blow the candles out on their 6th birthday cake, a child's brain is 90% developed. We are ensuring that it is wired for success.

Summer Reading Program

We rode the reading rainbow this summer!

Thanks to the many people who contributed in astounding ways, we engaged with families with reading, writing, story telling, play time, snacks, and community time.

Our big kids had a blast crafting stories, learning the importance of developing a storyboard of characters and designing settings for their ideas. Their masterpieces have been printed as actual books and are ready for a place of pride on their bookshelf.

Every week our little ones shared their favorite book and, thanks to some phenomenal donors, they got to bring home the weekly featured book as a starter to their own home library. One of our volunteers even gave each child a special light for to read them by.

Speaking of volunteers... we could not have made it happen without our literacy volunteers. They have such a heart for working with young readers and went above and beyond to make learning fun with activities, games, and a delicious "Hungry Caterpillar" themed party!

Thank you for guiding them on their learning journey!

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader."- M. Fuller

Community Partnerships

Looking for fun, extra ways to support Saranam? Check out these two great opportunities that have some big benefits for you AND invest in Saranam.

What does New Mexico have more of than anything else? SUN!

We have an exciting opportunity coming soon with Affordable Solar that will give you the chance to harness all the clean energy benefits the sun can give us AND give back to Saranam!

Here is how it works: the Community Solar Act (SB84, 2021) gave New Mexicans access to a off-site community solar projects (think solar gardens) that have enormous energy-generating capacity. Now, you can subscribe to these projects and receive a discount on your monthly energy bill, without having to make the capital investment into solar panels on your home or apartment. This not only allows individuals unprecedented access to clean energy, but nonprofits- like us!- can also consume cleanly and save money.

As an added bonus, if you sign up with Saranam, Affordable Solar will donate to our mission. We estimate that if we can get 250 people to sign up, it could be a $50,000 donation!

Keep an eye out next month for more instructions on how to sign up for this "bright" chance!

Is there anything that screams summer more than a hot dog? Throughout the month of August, order up a delicious meal from local food truck, Dawgs for a Cause, at one of their events and they will donate a portion of their proceeds to Saranam.

Their mission is built on giving back to the community they love and they have lots of mouth-watering options to make it happen. They even have hot dogs for your furry family members! Head on over and "relish" a good meal for a good cause.

Catch them at one of their upcoming events!

August 1^st - Private Event for National Night Out (neighborhood in Rio Rancho)
August 5^th - Westside Summerfest (5pm - 10pm)
August 6^th - Church picnic in Rio Rancho
August 8th - North Domingo Baca Park (5:00 - dusk)
August 20^th - Sunday Funday, Haynes Community Park, Rio Rancho (12:00pm - 4:00pm)
Lunch Mon.-Fri. at Intel.

Happy eating!

Open House

Our most anticipated event of the year is almost here!! Our Annual Open House is your chance to see the apartments that families call home during their time with us.

There are two ways to join:

Take a guided tour of our freshly decorated apartments and learn more about the ins and outs of our program. Tours will be offered by appointment only on August 10th and 11th. To reserve your spot email Dianne Campbell.
We will also be posting virtual tours of all the apartments on our social media channels and website the week of August 14th. Follow us to make sure you don't miss a moment!

Busy Bees!

We might have the perfect summer for the phrase "many hands make light work". Over the last six weeks, we have had the absolute pleasure of working with several groups, both local and out-of-state, who helped around our campus.

We hosted teams from Be the Neighbor, Team Rubicon, Sandia Presbyterian Church, Refuge Church and Sandia National Labs.

In total, we had 127 volunteers give 421 hours of time, energy, sweat and heart to us!

The really neat thing? Many volunteers were kids learning to be compassionate, generous citizens through service. We are so thankful for their time!

Volunteers Needed!

Our Alumni Reunion is coming up soon! On Saturday, Sept. 16, we are bringing together over a hundred past families for an afternoon of community time.

It is a big event and we need all the volunteer help we can get. See the list of jobs and sign up to help today!

Donation Updates

Thanks to our community's generous donations, we have all the furniture we need to furnish the apartments for our 2023 cohort. THANK YOU!!

We are temporarily pausing accepting donations of furniture and household goods until September, to give us time to free up storage space. We can't wait to prepare apartments next spring in our new campus!!

ICYMI

In case you missed it, here's what happened this month...

Family Timeline: Families pack a lot of learning into their time at Saranam
Big thanks to Cross of Hope Lutheran Church for their generous donations to our welcome kits
August Campus Clean Up is Sat. Aug 5 from 9:00-11:00
Next volunteer training coming up Friday, August 25 from 8:30-12:00

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505-299-6154 |saranamabq.org