2008 Annual Development Report - Ruth Meiers Hospitality House

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“It is a fact, said Lieutenant Governor Ruth Meiers, “that you should give hope to the homeless, provide inspiration to the impoverished, establish a one to one relationship that strengthens and encourages individuals, that lifts them from despair.” Ruth Meiers Hospitality House opened its doors in 1987. Our home is named after North Dakota’s former lieutenant governor, Ruth Meiers, and rooted in her belief that each individual is unique with value and talents deserving respect and appreciation. Overview of Services The mission of Ruth Meiers Hospitality House is to “provide housing and supportive services to assist homeless and low income people in achieving self-sufficiency.” We serve those in our community who are at risk or in need. These men, women and children go without proper food, shelter and essential medical care on a daily basis due to a variety of factors including, mental illness, physical disability, addictions, domestic violence, family break-up and health problems. As a homeless shelter, the agency operates a number of different properties: 2 • Emergency Shelter for Single Women & Women with Children contains 18 beds and allows residents with children to stay 90 days and residents without children 30 days. Residents of the program are expected to follow a program to help them achieve self-sufficiency. Expectations include making three job contacts a day, searching for permanent housing and participating in daily household chores. Our staff also provides case management, health care and educational services to the residents. • Men’s Emergency Shelter contains 18 beds, and allows residents to stay 30 days. Residents of the program are expected to follow a program to help them achieve selfsufficiency. Expectations include making three job contacts a day, searching for permanent housing and participating in daily household chores. Our staff also provides case management, health care and educational services to residents. • New Beginnings is a seven-unit transitional housing program that allows residents up to a 2-year stay before moving into permanent housing. New Beginnings provides more independence then the shelter, but still offers structure and supportive services to ensure that the residents can transition from emergency shelter into permanent housing. It is a beginning to their new life. • Horizons provides permanent housing to 25 individual in a single room occupancy apartment complex. The men and women who live at Horizons receive subsidized housing assistance and are able to access the supportive services offered at Ruth Meiers. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” Aesop Fables
Supplemental Services • Stone Soup Kitchen provides a free noon meal to homeless and low-income people four days a week. Serving an average of 50-60 meals each day. The Soup Kitchen is staffed by volunteers from the Bismarck/Mandan Community. Much of the food prepared is from donations by local schools, churches, service organizations and businesses. • Food Pantry distributes five to eight thousand pounds of food monthly to individuals and families in need. • Joanne’s Healthcare Center provides primary and preventative health care to individuals in our community who are uninsured or underinsured. By partnering with area clinics, hospitals, physicians and dentists, Joanne’s Healthcare Center is able to provide much needed services for patients who cannot afford medical care. • Single Point of Entry Ruth Meiers Hospitality House is the 24/7 Single Point of Entry for the Bismarck/ Mandan Community. Homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless are referred to the Single Point of Entry instead of being referred to a number of different agencies. Staff work with law enforcement officials, emergency housing providers, churches and other helping agencies to proactively move people off the streets and into housing. • Drop-In Center provides help to people who do not want to be sheltered and provides a safe place for them to get off the streets at night. Men and women over the age of 18 can come and have a hot meal, wash-up etc. The hours of operation are Sun –Thurs from 12:00am-5:00am and Sat – 1:00am-6:00am. • Baby Boutique provides education to low-income expectant mothers on how to prevent birth defects and premature births, encourages pregnant women to get early and continuing prenatal care, educates expectant mothers on how to provide quality care to their babies, provides free CPR and first aid classes to mothers and encourages mothers to have their babies immunized. Expectant mothers earn incentives through working with other community programs that can be used to obtain items from The Baby Boutique. Mothers can stay in the program until their child reaches the age of two. • Daily Bread Shelf - Seven days a week volunteers go out to the local Supermarkets, Bread Poets and Starbucks and they bring back what these kind businesses have put aside for us. We take what we need for our residents and soup kitchen guests and the rest we put out for the low income families to come and access their daily bread needs. • Used Furniture Barn provides furniture to residents moving out of the shelter and into their own housing. 3
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2008 Annual Development Report - Ruth Meiers Hospitality House

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