Letters to the Editor

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Your donations will help the homeless

PADS Lake County is so grateful to Help Them to Hope and the readers of the Lake County News-Sun for their generous support of the Help Them to Hope Campaign. Thanks to committed partners like you, we have been able to continue providing shelter and other lifesaving services to individuals and families experiencing a housing crisis across Lake County.

In the past year, we have seen an exponential increase in the demand for our programs and services. We served a record number of 300 clients a night this winter. We are in awe of our community and volunteers who have worked to keep our neighbors safe; of our supporters who have never stopped believing in our mission; and, most importantly our clients who have demonstrated the resiliency of the human spirit throughout their journey home.

Thank you, to our generous supporters, we were able to serve 1,830 individuals and families experiencing a housing crisis in 2021. You have made it possible for us to continue to help our neighbors accomplish their housing goals in 2021: 468 Individuals moved into permanent housing; 703 clients avoided shelter through support from our prevention and diversion program; and 116 people living outside were engaged in services through our outreach program.

Again, we thank you, the readers of the Lake County News-Sun, for your support of Help Them to Hope. Your willingness to share your gifts with our neighbors experiencing homelessness is truly admirable and inspiring. The people we serve will benefit tremendously as a result.

If you want to know more about our work, find new ways to get involved, or just keep up with events within the PADS Community, please visit our website at www.padslakecounty.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Meghan Powell-Filler executive director

Program helped address rising numbers of those in need

The staff, volunteers and all of those we serve here at COOL Ministries are so very grateful for the generosity and support of your readers who give to Help Them To Hope, and also for the volunteers who work to make this annual giving event successful. COOL is honored to be one of the organizations to be chosen to receive a donation from Help Them To Hope this year. It is because of such generous donations as these that COOL Ministries was able to serve over a half a million meals to families in need all over Lake County last year.

COOL needed these funds more than ever this last year, as we have seen the need for our services grow each and every day. The rising cost of food has brought many newcomers to our pantry that have never before used COOL’s services. Each and every day of the five days a week that COOL Food Pantry is open we see a line around the building of people waiting to be served. Our transitional housing program for families has also seen an increase in applicants, especially since the eviction moratorium expired. Along with the cost of food rising, rent prices too have soared. Rent on even the most modest two bedroom apartment in Lake County is often astronomically high and unattainable for low income families. With donations from campaigns such as Help Them To Hope, COOL is able to provide safe and well maintained two and four bedroom apartments for families that would otherwise be homeless.

Help Them To Hope’s support, together with individual donations, other grants and fundraising events enable COOL to provide help to those in Lake County who need it the most. On behalf of the board of directors, the staff who work at COOL, volunteers who serve faithfully and especially on behalf of those who receive help at COOL, we want to thank everyone involved for generous support of our programs.

Mindy Lindholm, executive director