PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — An organization that helps those with housing needs has named its community partner of the year.
Pillars held its Report to the Community in Appleton Thursday.
Board and staff members provided updates, along with award presentations for Community Partner of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Matt Malm, community engagement director for Pillars says they also announced a $150,000 match campaign after a donor stepped forward.
“One of the things that we’ve been seeing in the community is the increasing number every new year of people that are experiencing homelessness and that are unsheltered and being overburdened and underfunded, that really complicates some of our strategies moving forward so we wanted to make sure that we could work with the community to identify our priorities and one of those areas was around the resource center which operates under a $150,000 deficit each year, we know that that’s a really important service and an unduplicated service in the area,” he said.
During the report, the city of Appleton received the Community Partner of the Year award, with Mayor Jake Woodford accepting. The city has worked alongside Pillars to address the housing crisis and homelessness with several of their departments investing meaningfully in the community’s collective response in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable neighbors.
Volunteer of the Year was presented to a group of dedicated volunteers that stepped up to help when Pillars was in search of a new volunteer manager. These volunteers are Bill Cudnowski, Michael Mailand, Lisa Geiger, Colleen Ebben, Pam Garman, Tressa Campbell, Fawn Groothoff, and Jessica Drews.
Pillars addresses a continuum of housing needs by serving approximately 1,900 adults and children each year.
The organization relies on community donations for 60% of its budget.
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