The Road Home, a nonprofit provider of emergency shelter, housing and other homelessness services in Salt Lake County, announced that it has received a $5 million grant from the Day 1 Families Fund.
“We are extremely grateful and honored to receive the Day 1 Families Fund grant,” said Greg Johnson, the board chairman of The Road Home. “This generous grant will help us fulfill our commitment to solving our community’s most complex social issue, and to ensure that no child sleeps outside and families end their crisis of homelessness as quickly as possible.”
This one-time grant, awarded to organizations moving the needle on family homelessness, will fund the creation of a novel data integration system that will allow case managers to better assist clients. It will bolster the efforts of The Road Home’s housing navigation team that works to secure housing, as well as help seed a $3 million capital campaign to fund a new administrative headquarters for The Road Home in Salt Lake City that’s currently under construction.
The Road Home is one of 32 nonprofits across the U.S. to receive the second annual Day 1 Families Fund grants, as part of a broad investment by the Day 1 Families Fund to help solve family homelessness. The Day 1 Families Fund issued a total of $98.5 million in grants this year. The fund worked with an advisory board of homelessness advocates and experts who identified and invited organizations to submit grant proposals to support their efforts to address homelessness. This year, the grant recipients from around the country include: Bethany House Services, Catholic Charities Eastern Washington, Catholic Social Services Alaska, Coburn Place, Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, Covenant House, Family Gateway, FamilyAid Boston, ForKids, Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan, Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, HOPE Services Hawaii, HopeWorks, Interim Community Development Association, Lafayette Transitional Housing Center, Mary’s Place Seattle, MIFA, Our Family Services, Pathways of Hope, St. Joseph Center, St. Joseph’s Villa, St. Stephen’s Human Services, St. Vincent de Paul, The Road Home, The Road Home Dane County, The Whole Child, UNITY Of Greater New Orleans, Upward Bound House, Welcome House of Northern Kentucky, West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, and YWCA Columbus.
The Bezos Day One Fund was launched in 2018 with a commitment of $2 billion and a focus on two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help homeless families, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities. The Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families. The vision statement comes from the inspiring Mary’s Place in Seattle: no child sleeps outside. For more information, visit www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund.
