More Than Initiative

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"In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” – Romans 8:37.

Jesus was MORE THAN a savior. When the woman with an incurable condition needed healing, he offered MORE THAN his cloak. He offered his relationship. When Jesus was confronted with hungry people, he provided MORE THAN food. He offered His abundance.

Jesus showed suffering souls that they were MORE THAN their pasts. He gave the poor, lame, and destitute MORE THAN healing or aid.

He offered them Himself.

California leads the nation in homelessness, human trafficking, children in foster care, drug addiction, and poverty. Fresno County has the highest concentration of poverty in a state that leads the nation in poverty. This region has the highest rates of food insecurity in a county that produces more food than anywhere else in the world. To tackle these problems, we need MORE THAN a new building, a new organization, or more money. Fresno needs a new vision.

The Fresno Mission is launching the MORE THAN INITATIVE. This initiative is MORE THAN about building a new building or raising money.

It is about starting a movement which you can join. This movement will bring together different organizations and people like yourself to work together through radical partnership to fight Fresno’s toughest problems.

“This is not a capital campaign for a single organization or cause. This is a growth plan to build a movement on behalf of multiple partners serving different people in need, united by a common purpose — to change lives.”

- Matt dildine

This initiative is to help MORE THAN the Fresno Mission. It is about accomplishing the dreams of MORE THAN 15 different non-profits, schools and ministries all who are coming together to work for a common purpose.

This initiative is MORE THAN about homelessness. It also addresses human trafficking, orphan/foster care, addiction and poverty.

This is about MORE THAN emergency solutions. This is about creating a pathway out of crisis that will provide people long term care, community, and relationships.

The physical heart of MORE THAN will be City Center, a one-stop pathway out of crisis. As a shared campus, City Center will combine the on-site expertise of more than 15 organizations, schools, and ministries. City Center will be a community catalyst with a park, gym, and coffee shop to enhance the surrounding environment and neighborhood.

The Fresno Mission is launching the MORE THAN Initiative so that lives can be helped, futures can be made, and souls can be saved. This is where you come in. Your compassion and unselfish giving can make an eternal difference by helping us transform lives.

Matthew Dildine - CEO

MORE THAN

MORE THAN

5 AREAS OF FOCUS

Hurt, harm and abuse don't occur in a category. When we look at the problems of homelessness, human trafficking, orphan/foster care, addiction and poverty, we do not see people that neatly fit into a bucket. We see a collection of problems jeopardizing someone’s chance at a healthy and sustainable life. If these problems do not occur in isolation, neither should the solutions. The More Than Initiative is about helping people facing life insecurity. Therefore, it will focus on the 5 areas of harm which most attack the most vulnerable, homelessness, human trafficking, orphan/foster care, addiction, and poverty.

50% of the individuals who live at the fresno mission are children.

70,000 the number of children who entered the foster care system in California in 2021.

12-14

"My time at RTC was a very healing time for me. I was able to process through trauma I didn’t even know was there. Every time I visit, I feel like I am at home." - Mary

The average age of first-time alcohol/drug use in fresno county.

1,150 Human Trafficking Victims identified in the central valley in 2020.

1 OUT OF EVERY 3.5 PEOPLE IN FRESNO, LIVE IN POVERTY.

MORE THAN

THE MOVEMENT At the heart of the More Than Initiative is a belief that we can do more working together than apart.

We need to stop thinking in silos and start talking farms. A farm is not a singular piece of equipment or building used for one purpose. It is an interrelated network of buildings, fields, machinery and equipment, all which do different things yet work in the collective for a common purpose.

The More Than Initiative is about breaking down the silos, bringing together a collection of separate organizations to build capacity, and work together using the various expertise of each organization to work for a common purpose to change people’s lives.

Through a movement which relies on radical partnership, co-location of facilities and shared services, the More Than Initiative will create a network of interrelated organizations who specialize in different things, but who also benefit from partnership for the good of our shared clients.

Our hope that the agricultural capital of the world will be known for a different type of farm: one that grows people.

PHASE 1

CITY CENTER

PHASE 2

RTC 2 TINY HOME COMMUNITY

THE PLAN The MORE THAN Initiative will happen in focused phases that will create shared campuses and build organizational capacity among our partners. Phase 1 will create a new front door for crisis at City Center. Phase 2 will develop a safe and supportive 63-unit transitional housing community for women and children at Rescue the Children (RTC). Phase 3 will develop City Ranch, a long-term transformational program within one of the largest master-planned developments in the U.S.

PHASE 3

CITY RANCH

Phase I

Project completion 2023 " I wasn't doing things that I could be proud of myself for. I just felt like there was more I could have been focusing on to help my family grow. And now I'm doing that. I’m happy with the decisions I'm making because it's making me a better person. I enjoy that because it's fun just being a dad. That's what I am really focusing on right now, just working and being daddy."

- Tony

CITY CENTER The vision of City Center is to create a shared campus serving as a one-stop shop providing a pathway out of crisis for people experiencing life insecurity related to lack of homelessness, trafficking, orphan care, foster care, poverty, addiction, and trauma. As a shared campus, City Center will bring together more than 15 different organizations, schools, and ministries providing different services to work together benefiting each other through their shared expertise. City Center is not being built as a fortress, but instead as a community catalyst with a park, gym, coffee shop, and environment

Watch the “why” behind City Center.

that will enhance the surrounding area.

CITY CENTER PARTNERS + MORE

"I asked God to put me where I could learn about Him, how to love myself and how to love my son well. I was broken, but now I know what real love is."

- Kim

Phase II 10

"During my time at RTC I learned how to love myself again and that Jesus was the most important relationship I needed in my life."

- Susanna

RTC 2 Tiny Home Community

Project completion within 6 months of funding.

RTC 2 TINY HOME COMMUNITY Because of your compassion at work in the lives of children, RTC 2 will be Fresno‘s first tiny-home community dedicated to women and children transitioning toward healthy living. The ground, once home to one of Fresno’s worst and most crime-ridden hotels, will be transformed into a haven of light and hope. The transitional homes will provide jobs, childcare, and mentoring designed to onramp people into safe and sustainable lives of God’s abundance. The community will allow multiple organizations to help women facing life insecurity.

Phase III Long-term trauma doesn’t need long-term case management. It needs long-term relationships and community.

City Ranch is a 27-acre master planned community featuring the largest tiny home development outside of Texas. In addition, City Ranch will include vocational training facilities administered by local colleges and schools, supportive services related to addiction, mental health and counseling, and mixed use housing that will provide job opportunities for residents.

Whereas, City Center will meet people in their time of crisis providing transformative pathways lasting minutes to months, City Ranch will serve as a transformative community when someone’s crisis needs months to years.

CITY RANCH

When life has provided decades of trauma, addiction, abuse and abandonment, the way to fight back is with years of hope.

MORE THAN At the heart of the More Than Initiative is a belief that we can do more by working together.

That is why we need your help.

The first phases of the More Than Initiative will provide various forms of housing for up to 500 people, multiple spaces to help vulnerable youth, kitchens and coffee shop equipment, Fresno’s first tiny home community and more. These important projects support the work of not one organization, but the many partners who have chosen to come together to do something great for Fresno.

We want you to be a part of our journey doing something special.

How you can partner with us.

initiative BUDGET $12,000,000

Why is your investment worth more? Normally when you give to a non-profit, your $1 is only worth 100 pennies. When you give to the More Than Initiative your $1 is worth $5 or more. Why? Through our model of radical partnership, your dollar gets multiplied by all the partners who are coming to work together. Instead of one organization bearing the burden of all staff, programs, and resources, the work and expertise is done in the collective, multiplying the value of what is given.

P HAS E I $ 4, 720,0 0 0

Crisis Housing $ 2 ,1 5 0, 0 0 0

Youth Center H u m a n Tr a f f i c k i n g & Orphan Care Hub

$ 9 0 0,0 0 0

K itc hen Eq u i p m e n t

$ 75 5,0 0 0

- A one time cash gift

I nd oor /O u td oor Playgrounds

$ 75 0,0 0 0

- A m u l t i ple - yea r pled ge ( p a i d ove r 3 ye a rs)

Fu r n i s h i n g s Par tner G row th Fu n d Fi r s t Fr u i t s M a r k e t P HAS E I I RTC 2 Ti n y H o m e Community

$ 375,0 0 0

- A g i f t of a pprec ia ted a sse ts (I . E . Stocks, Cr y p to C u r rency )

$ 3 0 0,0 0 0 $ 1 5 0,0 0 0

- An es ta te g i f t

$ 1 , 9 0 0,0 0 0

"After being homeless the Mission felt like hope.

I felt cared for, but most of all, I figured out that God was real and that he loved me and had a plan for me. That meant so much more than anything else in the world." - Michael

Want to learn more? We'd love to talk with you.

Desmond Camacho / MORE THAN Initiative Manager Email: Dcamacho@fresnomission.org Phone: 559-240-6072

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Scan qr code for more information or visit:

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Contact General Inquiries and Tours: Nathan Freeland Chief Strategy Officer Email: Nfreeland@fresnomission.org Phone: 559-293-4541

Leasing Non-Profit Office Space Don Eskes Director of Strategic Initiatives Email: Deskes@fresnomission.org Phone: 559-293-4547

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