Dear Friend,

I wanted to thank you for your support of us this year, and provide some updates on what the ministry has done over this past monumental year.

This has been one of the most important years for Street Life ever, as we have been preparing for the launch of the Homeless to Healthy program, expanding our services, and serving those struggling with the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year, we served 35,000 hot meals, serving food five nights a week at three locations throughout the Bay Area. We gave out thousands of articles of clothing and hygiene kits and medical supplies. All of this was possible due to the partnership, financial support, and volunteering made by the wonderful Street Life Community.

While we have been meeting the physical and spiritual needs of many homeless folks in the Bay Area for over twenty years now, we are now working to break the cycles of homelessness, addiction, incarceration and poverty and get people off the streets for good. This is why we’re launching the Homeless to Healthy program, a 12 month fully inclusive rehab program, to help people break the cycle of addiction and homelessness and get into a stable living situation. If you’d like to find out more about this exciting new chapter for Street Life Ministries, check our website here!

We are now in the coldest and wettest time of the year, when our services are the most needed. Many programs started by other organizations to provide relief during COVID are now ending, while the continued financial harms of COVID continue to drive people onto the streets. This makes our services essential, and makes us have to provide more than we ever have before. We hope you will consider sharing God’s love by donating to help the least fortunate among us.

One of the most exciting parts of our creation of the Homeless to Healthy program has been the match we received. A local family generously agreed to match all donations we receive for the Homeless to Healthy program up to one million dollars. That means all donations to the program will be DOUBLED, in full! If you want to have your funds MATCHED in full and you are donating by check, make sure to write “Homeless to Healthy” on the memo line! All online donations are currently matched unless otherwise designated. The vital need for this program combined with match makes this an extremely opportune time to donate, and we hope you will consider us in your end of year giving plans.

Finally, I wanted to share with you some of the many incredible things Street Life worked on and accomplished over the past year thanks to everyone’s support

New Night of Service

We launched a new night of service in Redwood City on Fridays, allowing us to serve over 5000 more meals annually. We also saw the numbers at our services rise across the board, as many of the relief programs brought about by other agencies during COVID have ended, while the economic harms of COVID continue. While demand has increased, Street Life has risen to meet the challenge.

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Launched an Outreach Team

Street Life launched a formal outreach team. While we have been doing direct outreach for years, this is the first time Street Life has had a designated team working fully on outreach, on going into camps, meeting people where they are at, and tending to their needs and encouraging them to come to Street Life every day. Having a designated outreach team has allowed us to keep our thumb on the pulse of the streets.

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Did Not Miss a Single Night of Service

Throughout 2021, despite the challenges that COVID brought, we did not miss a single day of service. Not only did we not miss any of our regular services, we were able to resume several special events we paused during 2020 due to COVID. We brought back our very popular regular bingo event, and with it we brought back veterinary clinics, the mobile clothing closet, and free hairdressing services to members of the homeless community.

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Homeless to Healthy Program

We made significant progress on the Homeless to Healthy program. We have identified the staff we are going to use in the program, and have begun to create the curriculum. We held our kickoff fundraiser in November, which you can watch on our YouTube channel. So far we have raised close to half of the funding needed to launch the Homeless to Healthy program and maintain it for several years, and we are excited to finally begin inviting members of the homeless community into the program and to fully launch it this upcoming year.

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New and Strengthened Partnerships

We have greatly deepened our partnerships with our existing partners such as LifeMoves, and forged new ones with new organizations uniting in our common goals. We were also able to bring some new organizations in to partner with us in the creation of the Homeless to Healthy Program. We also have been partnering with organizations willing to hire homeless and formerly incarcerated people, including Chick-fil-A and State Farm, to help provide jobs and training to graduates of the Homeless to Healthy program, and to help homeless people become self-sufficient.

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Helped to Vaccinate the Homeless

When vaccines were first made available, we worked with the city and the county to have our sites turned into vaccination centers, and were able to help get members of the homeless community and our frontline volunteers vaccinated, side by side. We also changed what we provided to meet the changing needs of the homeless community during the pandemic, including by giving away masks and sanitary supplies.

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Million Dollar Match

All donations to the Homeless to Healthy program are currently MATCHED IN FULL, because of a generous local family. This has been extremely beneficial to us as we fundraise to create the program, and makes donations to us more impactful than ever.

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Thank you for your continued partnership with us as we work to help the less fortunate and make lasting changes in people’s lives. As we reach the final stages of preparing to launch the Homeless to Healthy Program, your prayers and financial support mean more than ever. We hope you will continue to support us as we move forward in changing lives and bringing God’s love to the neglected in the Bay Area.
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God Bless,