Board members, volunteers and staff introduce customers to PACEM while bagging groceries.
Thank you Charlottesville, for filling your grocery carts at Whole Foods on September 16th. Community Day at Whole Foods generated over $4,400 for PACEM’s homeless shelters, helping us provide “A Pillow for Every Head“.
We are grateful to Whole Foods Market for this opportunity.
Volunteers from Grace Covenant Church accompanied by Adriana Nicholson, Director of Community and Volunteer Relations (far right).
Volunteers bring the warmth of human companionship to our homeless guests. And, when the office work load is particularly heavy, volunteers assist PACEM’s small staff.
Our thanks to Grace Covenant Church, for assembling manuals for our volunteer orientation and for making t-shirts were used at Whole Foods 5% Day.
Volunteers are the heart and soul of PACEM’s community shelter system!
PACEM Benefits from Whole Foods 5% Day!
The amount raised will be announced soon.
Thank you to Whole Foods and to the hundreds of wonderful Friends of PACEM and the members of PACEM’s Board who filled their grocery carts to help raise much needed funds for PACEM’s shelters! Whole Foods will contribute 5% of the day’s purchases to our Shelter of Last Resort program. Return to this blog site for the announcement of how much was raised from this event!
A very special heartfelt thanks to our fabulous board members and volunteers for helping to bag groceries, thank customers for their support, and enlighten community members about PACEM and homelessness in the Charlottesville area.
100+ Women Who Care
Demonstrates Their Strength In Numbers
With A Gift of $7,600 to PACEM
Thanks to 100+ Women Who Care, PACEM is in a better position to provide shelter and support to our homeless neighbors throughout the upcoming cold winter months. The women’s group contributed $7,600 to PACEM! We are grateful to be a beneficiary of this generous giving circle of women.
This gift was made possible in large part through Doris Crane, who is a member of the philanthropic group, and a long standing PACEM volunteer (with her husband, Fred). We deeply appreciate Doris’s passion for PACEM’s mission and our homeless residents and her ability to persuade others to partner in our community wide effort to provide “A Pillow for Every Head”.
Comprised of women who have a deep commitment to the wellness of our community, the Charlottesville chapter of 100+ Women Who Care wants to make an impact by providing funding to local charitable organizations that improve the lives of our neighbors in need. The local chapter was formed in 2008 and in one year has donated over $37,000 to Charlottesville area nonprofits.
If you are interested in learning more about 100+ Women Who Care, please visit their website at http://www.wwc-cho.org/index.html.
The Haven at First and Market (formerly called The First Street Church Project) is slated to open at the end of November 2009 – around Thanksgiving. The Haven will serve as a one-stop comprehensive resource center for the homeless and those at risk for homelessness. TJACH, Thomas Jefferson Coalition for the Homeless, is the lead organization behind The Haven.
What does The Haven mean for PACEM?
The Haven presents opportunities for PACEM to build upon its strong partnerships with others serving the needs of people who are experiencing homelessness. PACEM staff will have office space in The Haven and during the winter shelter months, PACEM Guest Intake will move from Holy Comforter Church into The Haven.
Because The Haven is not designed to be an emergency night shelter, PACEM will continue to partner with congregations, and community volunteers to provide a place to sleep, and the warmth of human kindness to our homeless neighbors throughout the cold months of winter.
PACEM is a committed participant of TJACH’s community plan to end homelessness. We look forward to the opening of this exceptional community resource which will consist of the following four basic elements:
Alice Wiggins, Co-Director of the C10M and Colleen Keller, PACEM's new Executive Director
On June 30th, PACEM became the grateful recipient of $15,000 – proceeds from the April 24th, Charlottesvile Ten Miler. Additionally, the Charlottesville Track Club contributed $2,650 and $2,500 was donated by runners who made a financial gift directly to PACEM. In total the race raised over $20,000 for PACEM!
Proceeds generated by registration fees from over 2,700 runners and local business sponsorships helped to support several area nonprofits, however, thanks in large part to the persuasive words of Skip Mullaney, founding member of PACEM and long time CVille runner, PACEM was named the primary beneficiary of the 2009 race.
We are grateful to Alice and Dan Wiggins, Co-directors of the Charlottesville Ten Miler, the Charlottesville Track Club and to the runners, volunteers and sponsors who made the race, and this substantial gift possible. This event was a tremendous community effort that will go a long way to help provide a place to sleep and the warmth of human companionship for those without shelter during the winter months. The gifts recieved through the Ten Miler will help PACEM shelters open on October 31st, and remain open through April 2nd, providing “A Pillow for Every Head”.
cross-posted from the personal blog of Dave Norris:
Since I am leaving my current position as Executive Director of PACEM at the end of June in order to pursue a new professional opportunity (TBD), I thought I’d dedicate the latest episode of my public access TV show to a retrospective on PACEM, its founding, its operations, the impact that it’s made on the community, etc. Joining me in-studio is Adriana Nicholson, who was one of the founding Board members of PACEM and currently serves as PACEM’s Director of Community and Volunteer Resources. Click here to view the show:
http://charlottesville.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=162
Fire, a local a cappella women’s choir, will perform a benefit concert for PACEM on Sunday, June 14th, at 3:00pm at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, 1901 Thomson Road, Charlottesville. Proceeds from the concert will provide shelter and access to support services for the homeless in greater Charlottesville. The public is cordially invited to attend.
On Thursday, March 26, PACEM Executive Director Dave Norris joined Coy Barefoot of WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now” radio show for a recap of PACEM’s fifth season of winter shelter, which ends today. The Charlottesville Podcasting Network has the audio — see http://www.cvillepodcast.com/2009/03/26/charlottesville-right-now-dave-norris/
Please join us in celebrating the groundbreaking for the First Street Church Project (112 W. Market St.) on Thursday, March 26, at 10:00am.
There are two critical components of any community’s effort to end (or at least severely curb) homelessness: increase the supply of affordable housing for the working poor, including transitional housing for families in crisis and permanent supportive housing for individuals with mental or physical disabilities; and improve access to the critical services that people need to escape homelessness (employment, housing, mental health/substance abuse treatment, health care, veterans’ benefits, legal assistance, etc., along with basic amenities like showers, laundry, telephones, mailboxes).
The First Street Church Project will be an excellent model for pursuing the latter goal, while the new Single Room Occupancy facility that Virginia Supportive Housing will soon build in Charlottesville will be an excellent model for pursuing the former goal. We at PACEM have been integrally involved in both projects and we’re excited to see positive movement forward on both fronts. PACEM has a particular stake in the success of the First Street Church Project because when FSCP opens its doors (hopefully by the end of 2009), it will serve as our intake site and will also house PACEM’s administrative offices.
Many thanks to Tom Shadyac for his vision, his passion and his generosity of spirit and coin. Without him, this day would never have come.
UPDATE: Chiara Canzi of C-Ville Weekly has the story. Or, see Rachana Dixit’s write-up here, from the Daily Progress, or Jenn McDaniel’s piece on NBC-29 here.