Marathon Fundraising.

We are always on the look-out for new and innovative ways to raise money to support program activities at the Outreach Center and House of Hope. We realize that it is vital to pursue a broad scope of funding and to diversify our fundraising plan in order to stay afloat financially. Individual donations, church support, grant writing, program fees, volunteers, and special event fundraisers are a few of the methods we have utilized to raise financial support.

Currently, a special event fundraiser is in its last week as a friend of the Outreach Center and House of Hope gets closer to running the Tampa Bay Gasparilla Marathon on March 1st. This event will be ran on behalf of both programs and donations can be made by pledging a dollar amount for each of the 26.2 miles to be ran or in one contribution amount. Please check out our progress at reaching this fundraising goal at: http://www.firstgiving.com/swfloutreach or click on the FirstGiving button located in the right hand column of this blog.

Also, you may have noticed we recently added a donation button from JustGive.org to our blog. JustGive provides a secure server that will protect your financial information and safely transfer your credit card donation. They never sell, trade, or give your name to any other group. And if you choose to donate anonymously, they'll protect your identity. If you would like to make a donation to our organization from this blog site, simply click on the JustGive.org button.

We really appreciate your interest in the work going on in southwest Florida to combat hunger, homelessness and addiction and thank you for your caring and support.

Community Partnerships

At the Southwest Florida Outreach Center and House of Hope we try to assist the families and individuals seeking help from our organization by remaining flexible and innovative. Although we are a small operation, we are taking on large issues such as hunger, homelessness, and substance abuse on a daily basis.

Compassion for those in need may be the driving force for the services we provide but we use a variety of tools and resources to carry out our mission. For instance, our Outreach Center is an ACCESS Florida site. This means we are partnering with The Florida Department of Children and Family in an effort to increase access of services to the community. As an ACCESS Florida site, we provide a computer for people to apply for benefits, check the status of an application or report a change. This is helpful for people without transportation, the elderly, or those who face other barriers to applying for assistance at the main office. Help for submitting a web application and checking status of information to determine eligibility is also available. Anyone is welcome to use our site for this purpose on a walk-in basis.

ACCESS Florida posts the statement "Protect the Vulnerable, Promote Strong and Economically Self-Sufficient Families, and Advance Personal and Family Recovery and Resiliency." on their website. Our Outreach Center and House of Hope programs, supported by the Broadway Community Church, hope to help maximize the available resources to those in need by partnering with other organizations that focus on improving the human condition and working together to change lives one at a time. Please contact our office if you have a partnering project/opportunity you would like to discuss: 239-936-8366

Fort Myers Receives National Attention

The issue of hunger and homelessness in Fort Myers was brought to the nation's attention yesterday by Henrietta Hughes as she spoke directly to President Obama during his town hall discussion. Ms. Hughes and her son have been homeless for over a year and living out of her truck. President Obama's staffers connected Ms. Hughes with the local Housing Authority who is now working with her to find housing. She was later offered a home by Chene Thompson, wife of State Representative Nick Thompson, in LaBelle, Florida. Here is a link to The News-Press report http://www.news-press.com/article/20090210/OBAMA/90210038/1075.

We are always looking for ways to help the hungry and homeless that visit our Outreach Center on a daily basis. Donations to our organization are welcome. We accept food, clothing, and financial donations and are very thankful for any assistance people feel they can provide! We also love volunteers! Contact us at swfloutreach@comcast.net or 239-810-5917 for more information.

Inform. Collaborate. Advocate.

Our Outreach Center is located at 3309 S. Broadway in Fort Myers, Florida. We are now open 5 mornings a week providing food for those in need from our food pantry and other emergency services. We can also offer a limited amount of emergency transitional housing and continue to operate our faith-based addiction recovery program at the House of Hope. Our outreach programs are supported by the Broadway Community Church.

This blog has evolved due to the incredible need for assistance we are experiencing everyday in our community. In an effort to inform, collaborate, and advocate, we will post weekly on this blog about issues we think are important. We want to keep both our local community and the broader community of concerned individuals informed about the current need we are seeing in Fort Myers, Florida for basic needs assistance and post information about our program's special events and activities and other events that may be helpful. Our purpose is also to better collaborate with friends, businesses, and other non-profit organizations to most effectively address the issues facing disadvantaged individuals and familes. Working together is the answer. Lastly, we want to advocate for the people we see everyday who are struggling with the many issues so many of us are facing during these tough economic times. We will give hope and support and offer assistance through direct action and referral at our Outreach Center. We will also share personal stories addressing hunger, homelessness, & poverty issues.