May 26, 2021

Spring Newsletter

It’s Spring! Fresh air, fresh season, and a fresh set of moms for Gilead House.  I am super excited about how this year is starting off!!  Gilead House’s outlook is phenomenal.  We are currently refreshing the house for the 2021 arrival of 6 families.  We have a new laundry room and our Computer Center was finished just a few weeks ago.  If you would like to stop by and see the changes, we are also conducting tours of Gilead House.  Please call 415.895.5574 ext.104 for an appointment to see and hear about the incredible changes in Gilead House.  I look forward to hearing from you! 

Carrie Scrimshire Executive Director

When Capri came to Gilead House, she was ready to work hard to change the trajectory of her daughter’s life as well as her own. As a member of the first Education to Opportunity cohort, Capri enrolled in her first college classes with the goal to earn an Associate Degree in Business and to eventually open her own restaurant. (Capri has often fed her house-mates and the GH staff, and we can't wait for her to open her restaurant!). In her first semester, Capri received A's and B's and earned a scholarship!

"Gilead House has provided hope for my daughter and me, a safe environment for us to live in and rebuild our lives. They have given us a fresh start!"

Capri's daughter, Brooklyn, has become quite the social butterfly since arriving at Gilead House. The piece of knowing that her mommy and she are in a safe and stable home has allowed her to bloom and grow in her confidence.

Did you know that we have changed the way we bring families into our program at Gilead House?

Last summer, we launched our Education to Opportunity program. The aim of this program is to ensure our moms have the education or vocational skills needed to more successfully compete for better paying jobs.

As part of our efforts to launch Education to Opportunity, we spent some time looking at how we brought families into our program. There were two primary reasons we did this. First, we needed to align the new families coming into Gilead House with the school year so they could participate in two full years of education while with us. Second, we had noticed that when a new family came into the house all by themselves, it was sometimes hard for them to feel fully comfortable around eleven other families who had already gotten to know each other.

So we changed our approach and now bring in six families at the same time. That gives all six new families the opportunity to settle in together, all experiencing Gilead House for the first time. And to make room for our new families, we move the six families who were already in the main house on 7th Street over to Leafwood - again at the same time - and ask the Leafwood families who are now in their second year at Gilead House to help mentor the new families. Through this new approach, all of our families work as a community to build new futures together.

Recently, we moved our 7th Street families over to Leafwood to make room for our new families. All of them are settling in nicely to life in their new apartments. The 7th Street house is undergoing a deep clean - and soon, our church partners will have the opportunity to come in and prepare the room they host for our new families. While there is a lot of activity going on at both locations, it is a very exciting time for sure.

And speaking of Education to Opportunity, here is something else you might not have been aware of. It is not just about the moms - it is about the kids as well. Our aim is to create a new vision in each child’s mind about the value of education, by giving the kids the opportunity to watch their mom work hard on her education and then seeing the benefits that flow to the family when mom is able to get a better job, that way, when they get to the proverbial fork in the road, they choose to stay in school and make a better life for themselves. Education to Opportunity - it is all about creating ripples of hope.

P.S. If you know a mom who might be a good fit for our program, please feel free to fill out our referral formand email it to angelica@gileadhouse.org!

We are pleased to highlight Manny G's Barbering and Hairstyling for this season's Donor Spotlight! In an effort to give back to their community, Manny G and his entire staff put to a vote who they were going to support and guess who they picked?! Gilead House was the lucky winner!

Manny created T-shirts to give to any of his customers who made a donation to Gilead House, and over a few months, Manny G's raised $1700! We want to say a BIG thank you to Manny and the team from Manny G's Barbering and Hairstyling for this generous contribution to Gilead House! We know there are so many worthy causes within our community, so we are honored that you chose us!

Next time you need a haircut, stop by Manny G's! It matters when you support local businesses that are giving back to their community!

What is a HopeBuilder? HopeBuilders are Gilead House’s group of monthly partners devoted to making sure that when homeless women and children knock on our door, we are able to provide food, safe shelter, and life-changing care so that they can escape their past and build a better future.

Because we receive no funding from the state or federal government, this group of partners is crucial in keeping the lights on all year long. What will your partnership do? As a HopeBuilder you will help free women and children from the destructive cycles of homelessness, addiction and abuse through: Education, Safe Shelter, Life & Job Skills Classes, Spiritual Growth, Parenting Classes, etc.

$10 provides funds for child to attend a school field trip.
$33 provides one night of safety to a desperate mom and her kids.
$50 provides a bus pass for a mom to get to school.
$75 provides school supplies for a mom for a semester.
$100 provides one week of groceries for a mom and her kids.

Meet Team Marion of the Novato Leadership class of 2021. Team Marion took on the project of creating our new interactive learning environment equipped with individualized stations for students to engage in personal, online, and small group curricular activities with centrally located stand up workstations. The wifi wired room allows for laptop/iPhone docking, desktop functionality, monitors, headsets, sound reducing cubicle panels, and two large wall mounted screens for optimal viewing. When Team Marion began the project in September 2020, six mothers and their children were living onsite and another eight families with children lived offsite. At one point pre-pandemic, Gilead House was providing 100 hours of tutoring weekly which focused on providing homework help to the children in the program. However the challenge of remote learning, the recent change to two-year cohorts, and the unique opportunity to embed learning in the home environment shaped the committee’s recommendations as well as research on creating communities of learning and systems that work in serving families in transitional housing.

Updating the Scholar Room allows both mothers and their older children to focus on education in a way that embeds learning into the nurturing home environment of the Gilead House and meets the requirements of pandemic learning conditions and collaboration best practices. When students are able to focus on school success instead of access issues, they build hope and skills for the future. Thank you, Team Marion!

Click here to watch a video about Scholar Room!