2024 MISSION IN ACTION HOLIDAY APPEAL
Together, we give hope, change lives, and alleviate housing insecurity!
Letter from the MATE Leadership Team
As 2024 ends, thank you for all so much for your support! Your contributions through volunteering and financial donations have changed lives, ensuring safe and secure homes to neighbors who face housing insecurity and homelessness. MATE is the only solution and last resort for many we serve.
As the need for MATE’s housing repair continues to grow, we need your support more than ever. According to Maine Housing, 79% of all Maine households were unable to buy a median-priced home in 2023. From 2000-2023 the median price of a home increased by 300%. Many households are now spending more than 1/3 of their income on housing, sacrificing other necessities like medicine, food, and heat. The only solution that many of these homeowners and families have is to remain in their homes which are quickly deteriorating around them.
Housing insecurity is exacerbated in Central Western Maine by years of company closures and job loss, a growing population of at-risk youth, an older population on fixed incomes with aging homes, and issues with addiction and alcohol. Maine also has 35,000 children living in extreme poverty. Most homeowners MATE serves report income of below $20,000, with many elderly clients relying on social security alone.
Please consider giving today to help us continue to have a life-changing impact on our neighbors experiencing housing insecurity in Central Western Maine who have nowhere else to turn. Thank you all for your generosity!
With YOU, we can reach our goal of raising $50,000 for 2025!
Doing so will enable us to:
- Increase our housing repair program even more, fixing more homes, serving more homeowners, addressing the urgent needs of our neighbors facing housing insecurity
- Continue to provide transitional housing, responding to the Farmington area housing crisis
- Continue to hire essential operations staff to operate at full capacity, providing critical support to volunteer teams, and enhancing operational efficiency
- Strengthen our long-term financial sustainability
- Buy a second operations work vehicle for transporting work site supplies to where they are needed, aiding our volunteers and supporting efficient operations
- Welcome more dedicated, hard-working volunteers, churches, and community partners who provide hope, change lives, and alleviate housing insecurity
(updated: 12/3/24)
DONATE BY MAIL
Mission at the Eastward
PO Box 206
Farmington, ME. 04938
Thank You!
Here’s what our homeowner partners are saying…
“It means breathing easier. I can’t even describe how much it means. It means peace of mind.”
“I’ll be grateful forever. It really helped me a lot. I’m on a fixed income, I’m in my eighties, it’s something that I couldn’t have handled on my own.”
“When all else fails, MATE is the light at the end of the tunnel. I was pretty much hopeless.”
“I was pretty discouraged, thinking this is all gonna fall down around us and I’m not gonna have a place to live for my daughter or husband or myself. I don’t know what we would have done without you. MATE were the only ones who would come and help.”
“I’ve always heard wonderful things about MATE, but seeing is believing. What you guys are doing is amazing.”
“You got me through a tough time. You make sure that elderly, disabled, and those in-need can stay in their homes, rather than have their house fall in on them or be in disrepair, or be in danger.”
In 2024, with your help, MATE made a difference to:
EXPAND OUR HOUSING REPAIR PROGRAM
52 Homes Repaired
(16% increase from 2023)
Completed More Home Repairs
(matching the exponential increase in demand)
285 Volunteers Hosted
(14 churches and 1 civic organization)
Provided Virtue-Forming Experiences
(34% of all volunteers hosted were teenagers)
104 Neighbors Served
(16% increase from 2023)
Helped More Homeowners
(providing more hope, health, and connection)
COMPLETED TINY HOME BUILD-OUT
After 3 years since the start of the build-out, we have completed construction of the MATE Tiny Home! Currently, we’re exploring what the final usage of the tiny home will be, ultimately being used as an innovative solution for one of our neighbors experiencing housing insecurity and in-need of affordable housing. Thank you to all the grantors, donors, volunteers, and staff that made the completion of this tiny home a reality; because of you, someone will have a warm and safe place to call home!
FINISHED PHASE II OF THE MCCLEARY HOUSE RENOVATIONS & HOSTED FAMILY OF 5 & VOLUNTEERS
We completed Phase II of the renovations at the McCleary House, the upstairs bunk-room build-out and outdoor landscaping, officially capping off a total restoration of the building that started in 2020. Thank you to all the staff and volunteers who provided the labor, and all the donors and grantors, specifically the Presbyterian Women’s Foundation, which made the transformation of this home possible. Because of you, Franklin County has a transitional housing unit for community members who are in-need of a temporary home, providing the opportunity for our neighbors to get back on their feet and avoid falling into the devastating cycle of homelessness.
In addition to completing the renovations, we were also able to host our second transitional housing guests, a family of five, providing them with a life-changing opportunity. During the summer, we were also able to host specialty support volunteers from away who served as Site Supervisors that enabled us to welcome a larger number of adolescent volunteers into our home repair program, allowing them to take part in a formative service experience and touch the lives of homeowners in-need.
We need your help to reach our $50,000 fundraising goal!
DONATE BY MAIL
Mission at the Eastward
PO Box 206
Farmington, ME. 04938
More Ways to Give…
-Memorial or Honorarium Gifts
-Gifts of Appreciated Stock
-Estate Planning & Beneficiary Designation
-Support or Sponsor and Event/Program
-Charitable Funds/Employer Matching Fund