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A Campaign for My Brother’s House 1 of the Holland Deacons’ Conference

“A Place to Call Home”

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or nearly one hundred years, the Holland Deacons’ Conference has been at the forefront of efforts to help our area’s most vulnerable residents. Years ago, we pioneered efforts to bring a domestic violence shelter to our community. We’ve invested in Christian childcare resources for our community as well. For many years, we’ve partnered with international organizations to fight human trafficking, provide assistance during international disasters, and have offered refugee sponsorships. Today, most of our efforts are focused on providing homes for adults with developmental disabilities. We currently manage five adult foster homes, serving thirty area residents. These homes provide a place where adults with developmental disabilities can experience community in a safe and loving environment while receiving needed social, emotional, and spiritual support. Unfortunately, our original men’s home (My Brother’s House 1) is in need of replacement. Recently, the leadership of the Holland Deacons’ Conference initiated a modest capital campaign to raise $250,000 to help build a new home for our adult residents. Over the next several months, a group of dedicated community leaders will be working hard to raise charitable gifts in support of this important mission. As part of our plan, we will be approaching our friends and supporters to seek your help in providing an adequate and updated home for the men of My Brother’s House 1. Please join us in supporting the “A Place to Call Home” campaign as we seek to safeguard and care for adults with developmental disabilities in our region. Sincerely,

Grace and peace,

Matt Klinkman Campaign Chair

Jack Kooyman Executive Director

A History of Service Rooted in the Gospel The Holland Deacons’ Conference (HDC) has been quietly serving the Holland community since the 1940s. It became legally incorporated as its own charitable entity in 1980. HDC exists to encourage, support, and equip deacons, church members, and partners to collaborate in Christ-like acts of mercy, justice, and compassion that transform lives and communities. To that end, HDC has been at the forefront of helping to meet significant human needs in Ottawa County and beyond. Some examples: • Concerned about the increasing incidence of domestic violence, HDC helped establish the Hospitality House in 1979, a domestic violence shelter that served hundreds of women and children each year. Several years ago, HDC decided to sell the Hospitality House due to the availability of other community resources and other changes. • Seeing a need to provide a supportive and nurturing Christian living environment for adults with developmental disabilities, HDC launched its adult foster care ministry. Five licensed adult foster care homes now comprise the heart of this ministry. Trained and compassionate Christians provide residents with needed supports and opportunities to live meaningful, active, and productive lives.

• Responding to an urgent need in the community for quality and affordable Christian preschool and childcare, HDC helped establish Lakeshore Little People’s Place (LLPP) in 1996. LLPP consists of a network of four licensed centers that serves hundreds of children and area families. A separate scholarship fund supported by HDC helps families facing economic hardship to afford tuition. • In 2001, HDC helped establish the Holland Free Health Clinic. This separate nonprofit provides access to health services for those in need with a mission to express the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. • HDC became one of the founders of Buen Pastor Ministries (BPM) in 1989. BPM has been ministering to migrant families for over 25 years with a focus on early childhood programs in an atmosphere that embodies Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. • HDC also supports World Renew, an organization that serves the United States and the world as the development, disaster response, and justice arm of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Through these efforts and others, the Holland Deacons’ Conference is committed to demonstrating Christ’s compassion for the vulnerable, poor, and suffering in our communities and world (1 John 3:16–19).

Our Challenge

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s mentioned, the Holland Deacons’ Conference operates five adult foster homes for individuals with developmental disabilities. Each home is licensed for six residents and provides opportunities for adults with developmental challenges to live independent lives that are enriched through relationships with roommates, home supervisors and other staff, as well as with people they come to know by participating in the various aspects of community life. We seek to model a Christlike approach in our ministry with adults that have intellectual and developmental disabilities by:

• Guaranteeing that all people with disabilities have the opportunity to achieve their maximum potential for independence, productivity, and integration into all aspects of community life. • Assisting individuals through planning, coordinating, locating, accessing, and monitoring services and supports that will result in an optimal quality of life. • Ensuring that individuals with develop­ mental disabilities have access to opportunities and the supports needed to be included in community life.

• Providing opportunities for spiritual growth and worship. • Advocating that people with developmental disabilities have the right to job training, employment at competitive wages, and career growth. • Insisting that individuals with developmental disabilities be treated with dignity and respect. Our homes provide residents with clean and efficient rooms, nutritional meals, supervised administration of medication, recreational and group activities, and various learning and personal growth experiences with personal support from a dedicated and trained staff. Our goal is to provide opportunities for residents to achieve emotional, social, and spiritual growth in a safe and nurturing homelike atmosphere. Our homes look like and feel like regular homes. They are located in neighborhoods and we participate in neighborhood life. Each home has private living spaces for residents—such as their bedrooms—as well as common areas to hang out together or share a meal. Many frequently gather together in the evenings to talk or watch their favorite programs. Some work on crafts, read, or play games. Additionally, each has certain daily responsibilities to perform: some attend job or skills training programs, many have parttime jobs, and everyone helps with the routine tasks around the house. In short, each of our homes is a home in every sense of the word . . . and, most importantly, each resident has chosen to call My Brother’s or Sister’s House their home.

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Our goal is to provide opportunities for residents to achieve emotional, social, and spiritual growth in a safe and nurturing atmosphere.

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While our homes have served us well for many years, our most pressing challenge is that our oldest home on 10th Street (My Brother’s House 1) in downtown Holland is no longer adequate and needs to be replaced. Some limitations include:

• It only has a single bedroom and no separate living area for a live-in home supervisor. As a result, the current home does not have space for young families that increasingly serve as our home supervisors. • The original home was not designed with modern accessibility features and, as our residents age, barrier-free access is increasingly important. • Although smaller than our other homes, expenses for maintenance and utilities are among the highest.

A Proposed Solution

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he Holland Deacons’ Conference was gifted with land for the construc­tion of a new adult foster care home to replace our original. This new home will be built with larger space for our supervisory team and a facility that is barrier free and fully compliant with The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Constructing and furnishing the new home will cost approximately $550,000. In April 2015, the HDC Board approved plans for the building project. Approximately half of the funds needed for this project are from the sale of properties, investments, and designated gifts. Our goal now is to raise the remaining $250,000 from friends and supporters who value our mission and realize the emotional, social, and spiritual benefits that accrue to our residents, our churches, and our communities.

Expenses Anticipated: Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Construction and landscaping . . . . . . Furnishings, fixtures, and equipment . Capital Campaign expenses . . . . . . . .

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No cost (land was gifted) . . . . . . . . . . . . .$510,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . $23,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17,000

Total expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $550,000

Funding Available and Anticipated: Designated gift received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000 Proceeds from sale of Hospitality House in 2007 . . . . . . . . $142,000 Anticipated proceeds from sale of current MBH1 . . . . . . . . $153,000 Total funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $300,000

Capital Campaign Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $250,000

How You Can Help Meeting this ambitious goal will require the goodwill of community residents to partner with the Holland Deacons’ Conference in providing adequate housing for our neighbors with developmental disabilities. We are seeking gifts and pledges payable over two years.

Our projected path to the $250,000 campaign goal is as follows: Number of Gifts

Size of Gift

Cumulative Total

1

$50,000

$50,000

2

$30,000

$110,000

3

$15,000

$155,000

4

$10,000

$195,000

6

$5,000

$225,000

8

$2,000

$241,000

10

$1,000

$251,000

With your help, our plan to provide a more modern, accessible, and overall better living environment for our residents can become a reality. Please consider joining the Holland Deacons’ Conference in extending God’s love to those who call My Brother’s and Sister’s Houses home.

Rendering of the new My Brother’s House 1.

Transforming Individuals & Communities Together

Contact Information Holland Deacons’ Conference Phone: 616.494.6050 / Mobile: 616.634.1319 E-mail: [email protected]

www.hdccrc.org

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272 East 26th St., Holland, MI 49423