RED 2022 is right around the corner and we are so excited to return to an in-person event. Entering its 21st consecutive year, RED provides financial support essential to our mission. Get ready to ROAR as we gather to celebrate HOUSING, HEALTH and HOPE
ROARING RED 2022 is Saturday, April 9, 2022 at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch.
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The ONLINE Pick-A-Prize Raffle is LIVE! Get your ticket(s) now! Tickets are $100 for a bundle of 6 chances or $20 for single tickets.
The ONLINE raffle runs through midnight Wednesday, April 6. Purchased online tickets will be entered into the raffle boxes the evening of Saturday, April 9 during the event.
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Meet Jim Hinrichs, M.D. - Cooper House Volunteer Medical Director |
Last year Dr. Jim Hinrichs was presented with the 2021 Michael Edlin Award for his service as the Medical Director at Cooper House. While accepting the award, which is the highest honor DOORWAYS bestows on volunteers, he told the story of how he initially discovered DOORWAYS, the only place ready and able to help a then seventeen year old girl named Angel who was very ill and near death. He mentioned his regret over losing touch with her. After the dinner, a physician from the Washington University Infectious Diseases Clinic approached him, explaining Angel was now his patient.
Click here to read more about Dr. Hinrichs and Angel.
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Client Satisfaction Survey...Did You Know? |
Every year DOORWAYS conducts an agency wide Client Satisfaction Survey providing an opportunity to hear the voices of the clients we serve. The survey is sent out via text messages and emails with two follow ups. Clients are incentivized to complete the survey by being entered into a raffle to win one of two $50 gift cards. Residents of Cooper House were contacted by phone and handed surveys at lunch. The 878 clients surveyed represented the head of household receiving housing assistance who had a phone number or email.
The survey asked respondents to rate nine questions on a 5 point scale. The survey asked:
- I believe my information is kept confidential – 4.5
- Staff treat me fairly – 4.4
- I have gained new knowledge and skills – 4.0
- I have added healthy behaviors – 4.1
- Staff helped me access services I need – 4.4
- I am more hopeful about my future – 4.3
- Staff is knowledgeable about resources I need – 4.4
- I am taking my medication consistently – 4.2
- I feel respected by the staff – 4.4
Overall, the respondents scored the programs and staff very high with an average score of 4.4 out of 5.
A few client quotes:
"I am grateful and happy to live here and be safe."
Responded to emergency situations with genuine empathy and concern."
"You all really helped me in my lowest moments. Because of housing I can take my medicine regularly and my children have a home and I’m not stressed as much."
"You allowed me to remain stable through a very turbulent time in my life."
"Always available, always willing to help, very patient, very encouraging."
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Major Sculpture by Renowned Artist Kehinde Wiley Coming to New DOORWAYS Campus |
DOORWAYS is thrilled that a major sculptural commission by Kehinde Wiley, one of the nation’s leading artists, will be permanently sited on our new Campus. The monumental work, titled Rumors of War, will make our new campus on the North Side of St. Louis a landmark in public art and social consciousness.
The work is a generous long-term loan to DOORWAYS from the St. Louis-based Gateway Foundation.
Wiley has been well recognized for his large-scale portrait paintings, which feature African American men and women wearing contemporary dress in poses based on well-known images of historical Western artworks — most often royals and generals. He garnered even more renown for painting the official Presidential portrait of President Barack Obama, which now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Rumors of War reimagines traditional heroic equestrian monuments. It features a man on a horse, with pose and posture modeled after the statue of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart that until recently stood on Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA. There are however, several significant differences: The man on this horse is Black, wears a hoodie, jeans and high-top sneakers, and has his hair in dreadlocks. Wiley’s work is meant as a direct response to confederate monuments by reimagining a new hero and protagonist.
Rumors of War will be sited at the entrance plaza just outside the new headquarters building, at 1101 North Jefferson Avenue, northwest of its intersection with Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. The bronze sculpture, which will be placed on a stone pedestal, measures 53 inches high x 64 inches wide x 24 inches deep. It is one of nine smaller versions, or “editions,” of a larger sculpture that Wiley made for placement in Richmond. The new piece is scheduled to be installed in the summer of 2022, when work at the new campus is completed.
DOORWAYS is immensely grateful to the Gateway Foundation for this fascinating and stirring artwork. It will immediately establish our campus as a landmark for contemporary art, not only in North St. Louis but in the entire St. Louis region and beyond.
For the full press release and story click here.
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Thanks To Bayer Fund For Nutrition Support! |
March is National Nutrition Month. We would like to spotlight the Bayer Fund, which has been providing critical support to assure our clients have nutritious food when transitioning from homelessness to housing through DOORWAYS.
Since 2010, our intake coordinators have seen increasing food insecurity among our new clients, as well as those already placed in our subsidized housing apartments. They are trying to survive on social security disability or low-wage employment income. Many live below the Federal Poverty Level. While we have always linked clients with food providers and food banks, it takes several days for clients to secure those resources. For one or more days, clients may be without food.
In 2018, DOORWAYS secured a grant from the Bayer Fund that gave us the ability to fill this hunger gap. We created a food insecurity screening tool to determine levels of need. In Fiscal Year 2021, the fourth year of this partnership, the food insecurity tool continued to reveal hunger: 77% of those responding worry about finding food; 75% say that often/sometimes there is not enough food to eat; 70% indicated their shortage of food was due to affordability and lack of funds. Due to this, 55% have lost weight because of food insecurity. 52% have gone one or two days without food and another 15% have gone without food for three or more days--that's 67% total.
“Throughout the years, the grants given through Bayer Fund have helped strengthen our communities across the United States,” said Al Mitchell, President of Bayer Fund. “We’re proud to be able to provide support to develop programs like DOORWAYS that help combat challenges such as food insecurity.”
The DOORWAYS Chief Program Officer, Pat Plumley, MSW, MA, LNHA, is grateful to the Bayer Fund for their support. "Our clients have been battling poverty, homelessness, and illness from HIV. They come to us in crisis. Thanks to the Bayer Fund, we are able to offer housing and access to food as they begin a journey to recovery," smiled Plumley. She added that the grant funds were of particular value during the onset of COVID-19. Low-wage jobs were eliminated, businesses closed, and many of our clients lost their income. With so many people applying for unemployment at one time, it took weeks for some to begin receiving food assistance. Plus, the food providers themselves closed or reduced hours. The Bayer Fund grant supported many DOORWAYS clients through this unprecedented event.
In 2021, Bayer Fund awarded more than $13.1 million to over 3,400 charitable and nonprofit organizations to help address essential needs in food and nutrition, STEM education and community development. Over the last five years, nonprofit organizations across the U.S. have received more than $75 million.
"It is honor for DOORWAYS to be one of the agencies supported by the Bayer Fund," noted Jim Timmerberg, Director of Development. "We are very grateful for all that they do for the community, both locally and nationally. Bayer is certainly a dedicated corporate citizen."
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Don't Forget To Make Your Reservations!
ROARING RED 2022 is Saturday, April 9, 2022. ROARING RED will be an evening of revelry and merriment reminiscent of the famed roaring 20s! For more information and tickets visit www.doorwaysred.org
Mark your calendars and make your reservations today!
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Thank you for your ongoing support this new year fighting two pandemics--HIV and COVID-19! |
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DOORWAYS adheres to all local COVID-19 protocols.
Masks and proof of vaccination are required at events.
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DOORWAYS is an interfaith non-profit organization which provides housing and related supportive services to improve quality of life and health outcomes for people affected by HIV/AIDS. |
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DOORWAYS, an IRC 501(c)3 tax-exempt Missouri nonprofit corporation, is registered to solicit funds for charitable purposes in Missouri and Illinois. DOORWAYS only solicits such charitable contributions in MO and IL. |
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