Homeward Bound of Marin

We believe in the vision that dignified, safe housing is a basic human right, deserved by everyone. So it was wonderful to see Puett Place, our new 24-unit permanent supportive housing program for veterans, recognized for Community Impact by the North Bay Business Journal in this year's Excellence in Construction Awards. Veterans Program Coordinator David Brown, at right, joined Drew Fagent of ZFA Structural Engineers at last night's awards event. See more at https://lnkd.in/gW6suJJ9

Our Community Anniversary Celebration is just one week from today! Please join us from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, for the opening of 26 new homes at Sweeney Place, plus birthday cake made by students and staff at Fresh Starts Culinary Academy. There will be free parking at the SMART Train Station at 10 Main Gate Road, with convenient shuttle service to our site. See https://lnkd.in/gC6Cifqv for more info and RSVP at bit.ly/HBnov19. Everyone is invited!

A high point of our week was hosting the retreat for REDF Leaders of Color Affinity Group, a gathering of talented and inpiring folks from social enterprises across the country. Our team carried away loads of ideas and insight! We also got the chance to share, showing off our event space, the tasty menu prepared by our Fresh Starts team and the new training and events center to be completed next year.

Partners from Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative made time before their event in The Key Room yesterday for tours of the new buildings that will complete our Novato campus. Groups had a chance to visit the 26 apartments being completed for people returning to the workforce, along with the veterans building and our work-in-progress training and events center. More preview tours are coming soon!

Are you interested in the issue of affordable housing? The Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative will be hosting an informative event from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in The Key Room, our onsite event venue. Paul Fordham, our Co-Chief Executive Officer, will speak about the work of ending veteran homelessness in Marin County and the coordinated efforts to create more solutions for people without housing. Our team also will offer preview tours of our new Sweeney Place apartments. See the event online to RSVP and find out more.

We had the honor of hosting more than 100 attendees this week in The Key Room for the kickoff session of Marin Leadership for Equity and Opportunity with Impact Launch. Led by Dr. Monica Sharma, the conference brought together a passionate group of people to learn about creating sustained impact in areas like racial equity, housing justice and economic opportunity.

Hear some thoughts on how to achieve housing for all from Alex Schafran and his Housing After Dark podcast. Our Co-CEO Paul Fordham talks about how his mission to solve homelessness began and how our options have developed in the latest episode. https://bit.ly/4dwFws9

There's still time to join our 50th Anniversary Celebration on Sept. 22! We have lined up a special chef-curated menu, tantalizing live auction items and speakers to share the life-changing impact of programs supported by our donors, advocates, partners and volunteers. Find out more and make your reservations today! https://lnkd.in/gjFYEf76

It's kickoff week for the CA RISE initiative and we're thrilled to be part of it! We're among the 61 awardees for this groundbreaking initiative to support employment social enterprises. The award strengthens our mission-driven businesses that employ graduates of Fresh Starts Culinary Academy: The Key Room event venue, Wagster Treats dog biscuits and Fresh Starts Chef Events. With CA RISE, we'll keep making progress to break barriers to employment and economic growth for people who have faced challenges like unstable housing or a history of incarceration. Awardees gathered in Sacramento include our Co-CEO Paul Fordham as well as the leading partners: REDF, the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) and Lendistry. Read more about the initiative:?https://lnkd.in/eEm86aHM

Join us for an evening of celebration on Sept. 22!