This season,

Get Cozy With CAN

Featured Image: Longtime Bryant family members Shonna, Rika, and Billy!

Stabilizing Families Edition - November 2022

At CAN, we know that stability cannot be achieved without reliable access to basic needs like food, housing, and many others. You've heard about how CAN is tackling food insecurity for over 1,800 families in Washtenaw County. But the work doesn't end there. Read on to find out what else CAN is doing to help stabilize families!

Home Sweet Home

Having a reliable, safe, and clean place to call home is one of the most basic needs and human rights. The reality is that hundreds of families in Washtenaw County experience housing insecurity and homelessness.

While CAN leaves direct housing assistance to the experts like Ann Arbor Housing Commission and Avalon Housing, we are able to take a unique approach to housing stabilization. By connecting the families we partner with to vital community resources, we are able to take away the burden of finding help and navigating challenging systems.

This year we were able to prevent eviction for dozens of families through the COVID Emergency Rental Assistance program. Even though this program ended earlier this year, the need for housing and utility assistance remains. We are so grateful for indispensable partnerships with organizations like the Ann Arbor Thrift Shop which helped us prevent another 15+ families from losing their housing.

NO EVICTIONS

FOR 20 YEARS

due to non-payment of rent in CAN's voucher-based communities

Keeping Warm This Winter

If you live in Michigan or ever have, you know that warm clothing is essential this time of year! Hats, gloves, winter coats, and snow boots are all needed to keep students safe waiting at the bus stop, stay cozy at recess, and everything in between! But for under-resourced families, it can be another things that's tough to afford, especially for growing kids!

CAN works with many partners to ensure our families are able to acquire winter gear. Every year, around this time, we partner with Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor's Warm The Children to get vouchers for warm clothing for...

175 children!

A Neighbor You CAN Count On

Have you ever been making a recipe, only to realize halfway through that you're missing a key ingredient? Did you give your neighbor a call to see if you could borrow that cup of sugar?

Well, imagine the thing you were missing was a basic need like dish soap, facemasks during the height of COVID, or toothpaste that you just ran out of. It can be scary to run out of these necessities and not be able to afford more.

For many families, CAN is considered a neighbor they can count on in times of need. Our pantries are often stocked with more than just food. Thanks to our outstanding partners and donors, hygiene product and household cleaning supply drives help us ensure basic needs are available to our families!

Essentials For Education

Can you imagine going to your first day of school and trying to learn without a backpack, or notebooks, pencils, folders, and all the other supplies on the list of must-haves?

The back-to-school season can bring a lot of extra expenses, and no student should head back to the classroom without the tools to learn. This is why CAN works with dozens of generous donors to collect backpacks filled with supplies so that families don't have to worry about affording these basic needs for education.

This summer, CAN handed out backpacks filled with school supplies for the 2022-23 school year to...

Over 530

Washtenaw County students!

Support CAN's Mission!

Help CAN continue these essential programs and services by DOUBLING your impact with our exciting match campaign! There are many ways to support CAN's mission...

Consider a financial contribution:

Or give by mail:

PO Box 130076

Ann Arbor, MI 48113

Give when you shop:

Do you shop at Kroger?

Do you have a Kroger Plus card?

Take advantage of their Community Rewards program and donate to CAN when you use your Kroger Plus Card! Just login to your Kroger account, under "account summary", scroll down to Community Rewards. Then search for CAN by typing in our

organization number:

SJ915

Once CAN is enrolled, Kroger will donate to Community Action Network every time you use your

Kroger Plus card!

Buying gift cards this season?

Consider purchasing through www.raiseright.com

A percentage (2%-20%) of each purchase

goes to CAN with our code:

B7JKTSJ298XC

Doing some holiday shopping on Amazon?

smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2792610

Use this link and Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchase directly to CAN!

Stay connected with CAN!

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram:

Community Action Network partners with children, youth, and families from under-resourced Washtenaw County neighborhoods to create better futures for themselves and improve the communities in which they live.

Community Action Network

info@canwashtenaw.org

www.canwashtenaw.org

(734) 994-2985

PO Box 130076, Ann Arbor, MI 48113