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Why we turned down $600,000

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Why we turned down $600,000

How we made (and kept!) our promise

Five years ago, Solutions for Change had to make a tough but very necessary decision. We said no to the government's new systemwide approach called "Housing First," causing the immediate loss of about $600,000 in federal and state funds. We knew that if we pulled those strings and accepted those funds, it would break the very promise that we were founded on, and diminish decades of trust with our community stakeholders. 

President and CEO, Chris Megison, went live on Facebook to discuss how far we've come since then. Watch the replay to learn about:

  • The initial promise we made to a 9-year-old girl to get her and her family off the floor of a shelter, and how that first promise ignited a spark that became a community-wide imperative that serves to solve root causes. 
  • Why in 2016 we made the decision to give up all of our programmatic federal and state funding and why, despite huge incentives and pressures from the system to take millions more, we haven't accepted a dollar since.
  • An exciting update on our recently launched Overcomer led initiative called #WeAreOneUs and give you a peak into something very big! 

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