Can you help us help families in crisis?

With help and support we can keep more families together and in their homes.

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With help and support we can keep more families together and in their homes.

We are helping families in crisis in our City!

Director of Responsive Services Sabrinia Gay meets recently with a resident of a homelss encampment in south Baltimore.

Dear Friend,

We never walk alone, and we don’t want anyone else to have to, either.

When the Franciscan Center began regular outreach visits to homeless camps around Baltimore in the Spring of 2020, our goal was to make connections with and provide food and services to residents who we knew couldn’t make it to our facility on 23rd Street north of downtown.

We send our staff in pairs. One to listen carefully to residents, the other to make notes about camp conditions and changes week over week. Are there new residents on site? Has anyone left? Has anything at a particular site changed?

Along the way, we’ve made some unexpected but incredibly helpful connections. Service providers such as Paul’s Place located on the southwest side and Helping Up Mission on the east side are reaching out, too, and they’ve been valuable partners. We’ve worked with Paul’s staff to track and seek help for particularly vulnerable residents and encouraged others to take advantage of Helping Up’s residential treatment program.

Together, we’re seeking to alleviate the loneliness and misery of homelessness and help connect those living in camps to the services they need to take the next steps in their lives. We never walk alone, and we don’t want them too, either.

Collaboration is a critical part of everything the Center does. We have partnerships with more than 50 other non-profits, churches, institutions, and governmental organizations covering all aspects of our work …

…from Culinary Services, which has longstanding partnerships with farms such as Little Portion in Howard County to First Fruits in Baltimore County to Oliver Community just across town. This helps us fulfill our commitment to serving all our guests healthy and good-tasting meals with local ingredients.

… to Responsive Services, who works with Identity Access Project to provide clients with state approved identification and Share Baby, to provide diapers and other children’s needs to new parents …

… to Empowerment Services, who has made connections with businesses around the region to hire graduates of the no-cost, 13-week Dignity Plates Training Academy, which prepares students for careers in the culinary and hospitality trades.

We collaborate because it’s the right thing to do, and because it makes us effective stewards of the contributions of so many people like you. You make our work possible.

Please consider a gift to the Center today. I believe there is much more we can do together to improve the lives of the homeless and working poor.

Thank you.

Yours in Service,

The team at the Franciscan Center.