At The Road Home, we support families experiencing homelessness by helping them locate stable housing and by providing supportive services so they can reach their goals and successfully maintain that housing. We also seek to create change not just in the lives of individual families but in our community as a whole. We work to be part of community-wide action that addresses underlying problems, provides lasting solutions and not only pulls families out of the crisis of homelessness but also prevents other families from experiencing the crisis in the first place. We believe that the biggest impacts occur when we all work together.

Here are some of the ways we work to create change:

Participating in collaborative community initiatives. We believe that to be effective community agencies and other stakeholders should work together to coordinate their approach and address the wider community issues of homelessness. Kristin Rucinski, our executive director, served as the chair of the Homeless Services Consortium Shelter Providers Committee from 2014-2018 and currently serves as agency representative on United Way‘s Board of Directors and as an agency representative on the advisory board for Numbers 4 Nonprofits. Melissa Mennig, our Program Director, serves on the Continuum of Care Core Committee, the Homeless Services Consortium (HSC) Board of Directors and also chairs the HSC Membership meetings. Other staff members also sit on community committees and help lead the discussion on ending family homelessness.

Forming partnerships with businesses and other stakeholders to create housing. With a very low vacancy rate in our area, extremely low-income and vulnerable families often get squeezed out of the rental market. We work with governmental agencies, business and other agencies to create new housing opportunities for these families. Read about those here.

Staying current on best practices. We stay up to date on research on homelessness in order to make sure our programs reflect the most current knowledge and rely on methods that have proven to work.

Providing volunteer and donor opportunities. The contributions of our volunteers and donors are vital to our success. We know that we can solve the problem of homelessness more effectively when we all work together. Read more about our volunteer opportunities and ways to give.

Building community awareness and education. Often the first step to solving a problem is understanding it. We help educate the community about the causes of homelessness and what it looks like in our community. We do this through presentations in the community, free tours at our facility and by participating in various events throughout the year.

Working with others in the community to fight against racial injustices. In our work, we see how racism has created and continues to perpetuate deep housing disparities. Read more about our commitment to decreasing racial housing disparities.