Dose of Hope

March 5, 2024/Volume 3

Dreaming of Home Breakfast

Share Saranam with a friend at this fun annual event

Jennifer Riordan Community Impact Award

Congratulations to Tracy Weaver!

Program Highlights

Decorator information

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Planning for financial futures

Welcome to the Saranam Family

Welcome new staff and Board Members

COMMUNITY CORNER

Opportunities, shout-outs and requests.

DONATE

Invest in ending homelessness.

Dear Tracy,

Think about someone in your community- a neighbor, a friend, a coworker. What do you know about them? Better yet, what do you like about them?

One of the wonderful things about being a part of a community is learning about what people are passionate about. It adds richness to our relationships as we share in something meaningful together. We have a great chance for you to tell someone from your community about something YOU care about- Saranam!

Our annual Dreaming of Home Breakfast is coming up and this is the perfect opportunity for someone new to Saranam to learn about the impact we make on families in New Mexico.

The time could not be better for someone new to get involved. With our ADC Campus mere weeks away from welcoming families, your friends can be swept up in the excitement bursting through the walls at Saranam!

Here are all the important details:

Date and time: Thursday, April 11 2024 from 7:30-8:30am

Location: Canyon Club at Four Hills

RSVP: Contact Dianne Campbell at dcampbell@saranamabq.org or (505) 934-9110

Who knows? Maybe you and your friend will get even closer decorating a home together, grabbing a coffee after tutoring or even just having a great new place to donate furniture.

Please share with members of your community! Thank you for being such an amazing ambassador of our program!

RSVP Here

Jennifer Riordan Community Impact Award

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our Executive Director, Tracy Weaver. Last month she was awarded the 2024 Jennifer Riordan Community Impact Award in recognition of her commitment to empowering women and spreading the kindness the award’s namesake was so well known for. Tracy was honored at a ceremony hosted by Albuquerque Business First.

Always a leader, in her acceptance speech Tracy encouraged us all to explore how our own greatness can be used to make our community something special:

"I believe in the innate potential in everyone that can be realized when given opportunity… When we mobilize and encourage, with kindness and caring, we build capacity to grow and find the greatness within us all. It’s there - - we just have to be willing to look in the right places. When we do find that greatness, we become leaders in our own lives, and others do too! When we do this well, we are living a life of integrity.” -Tracy Weaver

Listen to her full acceptance speech here and click below to read a special interview with Tracy and Albuquerque Business First.

Read special interview

Program Highlight

Decorator Information

We are in the final stages of construction on the first homes of our ADC Family Campus! That means we are just around the corner from Decorating Season: Spring Edition.

If you are new to Saranam, this is a magical time when volunteers prepare homes with all that a family will need to start the next chapter of their lives. Using furniture and household goods donated from the community, they create spaces that are inviting, functional and stunningly beautiful.

Are you interested in getting involved? We have LOTS of ways to help out, from moving furniture to decorating. We are holding informational meetings for new decorators today, March 5th at 11:00-12:30pm and 5:00-6:30pm.

If you have decorated before, we will have an All-Decorator meeting on Wednesday, March 13 at 5:00pm on Zoom.

To participate in either meeting, email Jennifer Clear at jclear@saranamabq.org.

Be sure to sign up for our volunteer newsletter to see the dates of all of our other opportunities to help prepare these homes!

Planning for healthy financial futures

From their first day to their last at Saranam, families are thinking about their financial futures. Some of these plans, like talking about our career paths while setting up Child Savings Accounts, will inform the immediate goals that families set for their education at Saranam.

Others, like the class on credit that our families recently did, help illuminate the role every day financial decisions make and will inform goals that will make them eligible candidates for important financial decisions. Special thanks to our volunteers who recently helped families read their credit reports and understand the changes they can make.

And soon our families will delve into long-term planning as they make wills that will plan for their, and their kids’, futures.

Want to help? We need a notary to make these documents official on March 7th from 10:00-11:30. If you or someone you know is a notary public in New Mexico, we would love to have your help certifying these documents during this class.

Welcome to the Saranam family!

Welcome to the Team!

Join us in giving a warm welcome to the newest member of our team, Tifani Vincent!

Tifani joins as our Outreach Assistant and will be instrumental in telling Saranam’s story through outreach, event management and so much more!

“I am grateful to join the Saranam family, not only because of the great team that I get to work with, but because of the beautifully human-centered mission and vision that Saranam stands for.

I am honored to be a part of a company that holds space for families to break out of homelessness and poverty in this unique multi-generational program that gives them the time to heal, opportunities to grow, and the support that families need to prosper on their path. I am excited to meet everyone and support in all the ways that I can."

We're thrilled to have Tifani on board!

Three Cheers for Three New Board Members!

A huge welcome to Barbara Audet and Andy Stoker to our Board of Directors!

Barbara joins us with years of experience in programming, planning, and interior design. After doing this work at Dekker, Perich and Sabatini, and most recently at UNM, we are fortunate to have her expertise supporting Saranam. Andy is the senior pastor at Central United Methodist Church and will be the ex-officio voting member from the church on our Board.

And a very special welcome back to a phenomenal supporter and Board member, Linda Weil. Linda has been one of our biggest cheerleaders for many years. Her leadership has helped us pave a path that will allow us to strategically grow and respond to the needs of New Mexican families.

Stay tuned! We'll be sharing more about these wonderful new faces soon.

Community Corner

Shout-Out to Our Community Partners

We have already had such a warm welcome to the community surrounding our new ADC Campus! We want to take a moment to thank some special partners from the Westside of Albuquerque who have jumped right in to lending a hand.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: HUGE thanks to the families of the West and North Stakes who donated hundreds of items for our welcome baskets as part of their annual Women's Conference.

St. Joseph on the Rio Grande, Shepherd of the Valley Presbyterian Church and Refuge Church: All of these wonderful neighbors are hosting volunteer trainings to prepare members of their congregation to be volunteers at Saranam. Many have also formed decorating groups to prepare homes for incoming families!

Applications Open!

We are still accepting applications for our 2024 Spring cohort. Help us spread the word about this life-changing opportunity.

Answers to frequently asked questions, application materials and more available on our website.

Find Application Information Here

Support a Home

Want to contribute to the new homes at our ADC Campus but aren't available to volunteer? We still need a few household items.

See what we still need on our wishlist. Thank you so much for your support of this new campus!

Family Wishlist

ICYMI

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

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