Campaign for Shawano Area Matthew 25 Inc

Welcome to Shawano Area Matthew 25, Inc's Go Fund Me Page! We are working to raise funds to help SAM25 continue its programs at a new facility and we need your help! All donations go directly to help fund the capital campaign for SAM25 and SAM's House Shelter. We hope to not only increase our shelter capacity, but to increase our programming through a Resource Center, Medical/Dental Clinic and Thrift Store. Our goal is to not only help those in need, but to prevent homelessness before it starts.

SAM25's mission is to help those affected by poverty improve their circumstances and become self-sufficient. Our organization began with a group of concerned citizens in Shawano who started meeting in 2013 to discuss the needs of the people in our area. Their efforts led them to establish the organization as a non-profit in 2014 and they opened SAM's House Emergency Homeless Shelter in 2015. SAM's House is currently in its fourth shelter season, open November 1st through April 30th of each year.

In 2017, we started a weekly "Resource Day" where anyone in the community who needed help could come in and get assistance with housing, jobs, hygiene supplies, clothing, support, etc. This has been incredibly successful and we have been able to reach many people who may not need shelter, but still need help. This resource program runs throughout the year. We serve an average of 5-6 households per week through our resource sessions, working to prevent homelessness through intervention.

We currently work with many local organizations to partner to offer our services. We offer a hub-and-spoke approach in providing our guests with assistance. If we cannot help them at SAM25, we refer them to the appropriate organization who is able to provide them with the assistance they need. We network constantly to provide our guests with the most up-to-date resources to ensure they are able to get the help they need to move out of shelter into permanent housing situations.

This past year, with a gift from the family of a former board member, we began to offer Dr. Ruby Payne's "Getting Ahead in a Just Getting By World" program to our guests, helping to provide education and empowerment to people to "get ahead" of the cycle of poverty. We also have a "Steps to Success" mentoring program in which we pair volunteer mentors with guests in shelter to help them get back on their feet. This program includes practical courses taught by community members on subjects such as employment, landlord/tenant relationships, parenting, healthy eating, etc. We will be implementing "Bridges Out of Poverty" training to our community this year as well to try to help Shawano residents learn how to work together to more effectively change the face of poverty in our area.

We are currently renting our shelter building from the City of Shawano/Shawano Municipal Utilities on a temporary basis. Our shelter is full, with 30% of our current season being at or over capacity. We have limited space to offer our ever-growing programs and are literally growing out of our current building. As a result, we have decided to purchase a new facility and will need to raise funds to renovate this site to suit our needs.

This new building will help us to grow our programs significantly, providing more room for not only our shelter, but also an official Resource Center with a classroom, a Community Medical/Dental Clinic, a Thrift Store to employ our guests/teach job skills and the potential for transitional housing apartments. It is our goal to continue to grow our programs so that we can help people through education and empowerment before homelessness starts.

We cannot express enough how much this new building means to us and how it will impact the Shawano area. SAM25 has been there for many people in their time of need and it is important for this mission to continue. Please consider helping by donating to this cause. We are grateful for your support!