FIRST LIGHT INC

Our mission is to work with homeless women and their children to create hospitality in a safe and nurturing community, to encourage them to maintain dignity, to find hope, to seek opportunity, and to grow spiritually, thereby achieving their full potential.

We are so much more than simply a bed and a meal! Our goal is to achieve a nurturing community for women in desperate situations. Helping our guests reach or return to independet living serves our community well. Reaching one's higest potential varies from person to person, given the mix of social, psychological, physical and economic problems that may be obstacles to her success.

A woman can change her life!

By completing mental health assessments, providing supportive care and appropriate referrals for the women to get the help they need, we are helping them to make positive changes in their lives. We serve the underserved who survive in a community with inadequate affordable housing and severely limited transportation options. Our guests, therefore, often stay in emergency shelter for months, rather than weeks, trying to secure employment, save money and locate permanent housing. Meanwhile, they are trying to heal from illnesses, damaged self esteem and dashed hopes for a life we all may have wanted.

We have expanded our services to include several permanent or transitional housing programs so that guests who qualify DO have an option to move to the next step with continued supprotive care from our social services staff. On any given day in 2012, First Light will serve 60-70 women at the shelter premises plus 41 women and six children in our housing programs.

Volunteers believe in our mission. Last year nearly 10,000 volunteer hours were logged by dinner and overnight volunteers alone.

First Light was "born" in the basement of a church as a temporary overnight shelter. For 17 years it was operated there by volunteers who eventually called for professional social services to help the guests with more than a safe place to sleep and have a meal. As a faith based agency, we believe in the power of a woman, coupled with her own spirituality, to fight to win her life back.

We need the financial support of the community to continue the journey. Join us! Your support will represent a partnership in our mission.