Maggie's Place 2023 Community Impact Report

HOPE GROWS HERE

2023 Community Impact Report

MISSION

Maggie’s Place provides safe housing and a nurturing community for homeless pregnant women, empowering them to thrive throughout their lifetime.

From Our CEO

HOPE > To cherish a desire with anticipation. Hope can give you a road map to your preferred ending. Hope is not stagnant; it evolves, adapts, and focuses on the result. Maggie’s Place is honored to be part of every family’s journey. We celebrate the milestones in our moms’ and families’ lives and provide the tools and resources they need to accomplish their goals.

My hope is that our moms, staff, and all our supporters dream of future possibilities.

With a grateful heart,

Laura Magruder, M. Ed. Chief Executive Officer

From Our Chair

HOPE GROWS HERE. What is “hope?” We use the word nearly every day. “I hope the weather is nice this weekend.” “She hopes to win that scholarship.” “We hope our team wins the big game.” Often, hope can be described as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Most of the time, we hope for something positive, (though we may hope something negative doesn’t happen, too). But hope is certainly about fulfilled expectations. There is a slightly older definition of hope that we should also consider, and that definition includes a deep feeling of trust and confident belief. That is the definition that drives Maggie’s Place this year, as we embrace the theme: “Hope Grows Here.” With a deep sense of confidence, we hope for, and deliver hospitality, counseling and support to every mom who enters one of our homes or participates in our various programs. Read on and learn more about the wonderful work made possible thanks to your support. On behalf of the entire board of directors, thank you, and be assured of our confident, expectant hopes in gratitude to you.

John Scola, Chair Board of Directors

Hope Grows Here: Ashley’s Maggie’s Place Journey

PREGNANCY AND MOTHERHOOD requires hefty physical and emotional resources and a community of support. Yet many mothers do not have access to a community of support, let alone a home to call their own or a safe place to sleep.

This was the reality for Ashley, who found herself experiencing homelessness while pregnant. Ashley was trying to maintain her five years of sobriety, while sleeping on the streets or a friend's couch.

Then, Ashley found Maggie’s Place. She moved into The Hannah House in February of 2023, about six weeks pregnant. She moved in with the hopes of keeping her connections with her older children,

reuniting with her youngest son, having a healthy baby, and continuing the ongoing hard work of maintaining her sobriety.

Every Maggie’s Place mom comes from a unique background with complex situations, but they all have one thing in common, they are homeless and pregnant. Upon arriving at Maggie’s Place, the goal is to establish safety and quickly acquire critical resources, like prenatal care, health care benefits, and a sense of stability and safety. Many Maggie’s Place moms enter our homes having four or more qualifying Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and other major risk factors for homelessness. Sixty-nine percent of Maggie’s Place moms have

experienced domestic violence, 65% have a history of substance abuse, and 27% spent time in the foster care system.

Maggie’s Place provided Ashley, first and foremost, with safety and housing. Then, she was able to participate in therapeutic services to help maintain her sobriety. She participated in support groups at the Family Success Center (FSC) and other soberliving activities. Ashley was also able to have a safe space for visits with her older child, who she hoped to reunify with.

Ashley also felt greatly impacted by staff and volunteers, specifically her stability specialist, who helps moms in the homes work toward their goals, be it resource acquisition, job support, or housing navigation. “My stability specialist has helped motivate me to be more productive as well as actively helped me to work towards my goals. She has listened to me talk about some of the darkest points in my life and has helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel. For that, I am incredibly grateful.” Ashley found community with the six other moms that she lived with at The Hannah House. They became like a family. While living at The Hannah House, Ashley applied and was accepted into the Workforce Development Program with a position working at Maggie’s Thrift. Here, she is learning the skills that she hopes to one day leverage in a career in real estate and interior design.

After having her baby boy in September, Ashley moved out of The Hannah House and into The Mary Apartments, a transitional apartment complex geared toward moms who are working to reunify with children in Department of Child Services (DCS) care. Here, Ashley can live independently, while continuing to receive dedicated support as she works towards reunification with her son.

One of the main highlights of Maggie’s Place is the continuum of care they provide to all Maggie’s Place mothers and their families. Ashley now joins the community of over 1,100 Alumni Moms with full

access to the Family Success Center. When asked what she will remember about Maggie’s Place in 20 years, Ashley reflected on the kindness of staff and “how encouraging, driven and hopeful the staff, AmeriCorps members and donors have been. I will always be grateful for the opportunities that I have had at Maggie's Place and the continuation of resources and opportunities I will have as an alumni mom as well. Without Maggie's Place, I would have not been able to succeed”.

THEY HAVE MADE ME FEEL SAFE AND SECURE, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY THEY HAVE MADE ME FEEL LIKE REBUILDING MY LIFE IS POSSIBLE AGAIN.

Many moms move into Maggie’s Place feeling alone, scared, and lacking a place to truly call home. There is often a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness. They move out of the home being part of a broad loving community that envelopes them with a sense of belonging and tangible resources that empower them to succeed.

“They have made me feel safe and secure, but most importantly they have made me feel like rebuilding my life is possible again.”

AT MAGGIE’S PLACE, HOPE GROWS HERE.

SPOTLIGHT ON RECOVERY

In 2023, Maggie’s Place received funding from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE). With this funding Maggie’s Place hired a second full time Substance Abuse Counselor on staff who can meet moms in person at the Family Success Center. It also supports our sober living activities and support groups. Our Support Groups include:

Addiction Recovery

Grief Support

Moms on Staff

Relationships 101

SMART Recovery

Thursday Night Support Group

In 2023, moms participated in 221 support group sessions with 1,191 total attendance.

TRAUMA INFORMED CARE

Maggie’s Place is committed to being the premier service provider for our moms and their children. Ensuring all Maggie’s Place staff members are Trauma Informed Care Certified is a priority for the organization and allows for the highest quality of services for our moms, babies and families. All staff completed training led by the Arizona Trauma Institute over the past two years, and Maggie’s Place was certified by the Trauma Institute International, November 1, 2023.

We recognize that everyone who works with our moms and babies, from staff to volunteers, needs to work within a Trauma Informed Approach. Therefore, we also began a Lunch and Learn series with volunteers to introduce them to the concept of Trauma Informed Care.

FAMILY SUCCESS CENTER

In 2023, 245 families visited the Family Success Center for a total of 4,434 individual touchpoints.

Bus Passes

Classes and Programs

Counseling Services

Diapers/Wipes & Essentials

Family Coaching

Food Pantry

Housing Support

Laundry

Social Connection Events

In 2023, the FSC hosted 40 different classes with 450 total sessions.

Expansion

MAGGIE’S PLACE, IN 2023, HAD AN OVERALL CAPACITY INCREASE OF 31%.

THE GABRIEL HOUSE

Opened in August 2023 in the West Valley. Features four single bedrooms for moms and a bedroom for AmeriCorps members.

GRANDMA ELSIE’S BUNKHOUSE

Funded by anonymous donors and located at The Hannah House property, the bunkhouse is our first home built from the ground up. It features four single bedrooms for moms and a bedroom for AmeriCorps staff.

The Gabriel House & Grandma Elsie’s Bunkhouse increases our bed night capacity from 26 to 34.

FAMILY SUCCESS CENTER

In September, we broke ground on the expansion of the Family Success Center, the central hub for all classes and services. As we continue to grow, the need for increased physical space for programming, offices, and our physical donations became necessary. In 2022, the Homeaid Phoenix Board of Directors selected Maggie’s Place as their nonprofit partner to expand the FSC and resources and services provided there. The expansion will represent a 37% increase in space and include a new childcare space, private coaching and counseling spaces, five additional work spaces, two multipurpose conference rooms, and an expanded donation area and storage.

The Gabriel House Grandma Elsie’s Bunkhouse

Gratitude For Volunteers

THE HEART OF THE HOME > In 2023, Maggie’s Place fully revamped our volunteer program. Volunteers are essential to carrying out our programs and services. They helped across our five homes, Maggie’s Thrift, and at the Family Success Center, assisting with classes, community events, and starting up the kid’s birthday program, and much more.

Donation Drives

Our community hosted 61 In-Kind Drives, providing Maggie’s Place with essential items from welcome baskets for new moms to toys and presents for our Maggie’s Place kids birthday program.

Because of the generosity of our community in 2023, Maggie’s Place was able to continue to provide exemplary services to our maternity homes, alumni moms and the families we serve. Our sincerest gratitude to each and every individual donor, organization, group, church, business, grant funder, volunteer and foundation who continue to invest in our work.

Maggie’s Thrift

Each of our five homes are staffed full-time with 2-3 AmeriCorps members that live in the homes alongside moms and teammates sharing meals, doing chores, celebrating accomplishments, and working through hard things together. Using a trauma informed care approach, AmeriCorps members create a safe, welcoming, home-like environment for the moms, so moms can focus on achieving their goals. Our heartfelt thank you and gratitude goes to the AmeriCorps service members who generously contributed their time, passion and unwavering support to the work of Maggie’s Place in 2023.

Grant Partners

J.W. Kieckhefer Foundation

The Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation

Otto & Edna Neely Foundation

The Norton Foundation