How is your organization doing? Biggest highlight?
Saint Louise House is more than grateful to have started 2026 as a Q-mmunity Gives Grant Recipient. Relationships are at the heart of our work and our success. Every new grant partner leads to new opportunities for single mothers and children living at Saint Louise House.Â
Together, we have provided home and partnership to 57 single mothers and 108 children so far this year. Sixteen families have achieved their goals and gained the confidence they needed to graduate to stable housing of their own, making room for sixteen families to move out of homelessness and begin their journeys toward stability at Saint Louise House. Ninety percent of families have made progress toward self-sufficiency.
Our biggest highlights of the year have taken place as part of our services for children. With your support for the Academic Success Initiative, we have increased targeted, holistic support for children at Saint Louise House, giving every child a better opportunity to reach their full potential. We have developed and implemented processes to identify children facing attendance and academic challenges so that we can quickly provide them with the support they need to succeed. We have just learned the results of these efforts – 100% of school-age children currently in our program advanced to the next level in school!
Our other highlight is that we are in the process of completing installation of a playground at one of our two properties. This playground has been long planned but was postponed when we faced the urgent need for very expensive safety repairs on the property last year. Children and their mothers alike are excited for the playground to be finished.
How has your organization grown in the past year?
Saint Louise House continues to balance long-range growth planning with targeted investments that deepen our two-generation impact - supporting mother’s economic mobility, children’s academic success, and the infrastructure needed to sustain high-quality outcomes. While the Board is working toward establishing a 15-year vision for growth, our current focus remains on strengthening programmatic impact through quality initiatives:
- Academic Succes Initiative: We have made significant progress supporting children on their academic journeys through our Academic Success Initiative. Most significantly, with Q-mmunity Gives support, Saint Louise House recently hired an additional Child and Family Services Specialist (CFSS), doubling our capacity to provide one-on-one parent coaching to mothers. We have also partnered with VELA for professional development and information sharing so that we can better support families with children with special needs.
- Child Care Initiative: This past year, Saint Louise House deepened its two-generation approach by ensuring that access to affordable childcare is not a barrier to sustainable employment and career advancement for mothers. We strengthened our partnership with Workforce Solutions Capital Area to ensure that all Saint Louise House families are assigned to the Homeless Priority Group, which affects both their priority on the waiting list and what they pay once they enroll. We have also increased direct financial support to bridge gaps in childcare during school breaks or while families are on the waiting list for subsidized childcare.
- Behavioral Health Support Initiative: Recognizing the critical role that mental health plays in developing long-term stability, Saint Louise House encourages and assists clients in accessing behavioral health services. Weekly client meetings include discussions about behavioral health needs in order to destigmatize mental health issues. We have developed MOU relationships with six different partner organizations, offering families a wide variety of options for mental health support and making referrals and providing financial support easy.
To support these programmatic investments as well as long-term growth, Saint Louise House is investing in its development team and strategy. We have added two positions to our development team with the goals of strengthening donor relationships, enhancing organizational visibility, and supporting both immediate and long-term sustainability. In 2026, we introduced a new event, Girls Got Game that successfully grew our community of donors making multi-year commitments. Our fall gala, Game Changer, will take place on Friday, September 18th.
What are some of the direct impacts the grant has had on your organization? Please describe and give examples.
This grant has had a direct impact on the development and implementation of our Academic Success Initiative supporting the academic success of children at Saint Louise House. We identified students facing challenges getting to school each day and addressed these challenges through child-centered case management meetings with their mothers. In some cases, a mother’s awareness was all that was needed for attendance to improve. Other cases are more complex. One student was missing school to watch younger siblings when they were sick so their mom could go to work. In this case, a discussion on the importance of an education for the child to move out of the generational cycle of poverty inspired the mother to find a different solution. In some cases, it is the mother’s mental health that is both a cause of student absenteeism and a barrier to addressing it. In these cases, through our holistic approach, Empowerment Partners prioritize addressing mom’s mental health needs.
This grant also impacted children through a workshop series based on the Harmony SEL (social and emotional learning) curriculum. Together, the children called the group The Bright Side, decorated their talking stick and named it Laci, and explored how to handle strong emotions, value differences, and express themselves.
The most important impacts of this grant are seen over time, in the success and the lives of the single mothers and children who live at Saint Louise House. For example:
- Lara and her four children began experiencing homelessness after an abusive situation that led to a warrant for her husband’s arrest. His family then evicted her from their home. She had not worked for over ten years, did not have control over their finances, and had no credit or rental history of her own. They moved among family and friends and another program until an apartment became available for them at Saint Louise House.
- In the stability of Saint Louise House, Lara and her children thrived. After a period of not attending school regularly, her oldest daughter was connected to a charter school at which she was able to succeed. Her younger children were transferred to another charter school and received support for school uniforms. When one faced a behavior challenge at school, they asked our Child and Family Services Specialist to help write a letter to her teacher explaining the situation, and the situation improved.
- From day one, Lara dreamed of purchasing a home of their own for her family. She used the two years of very low rent at Saint Louise House to work diligently, establish a savings account, and pay down her credit card. She met with a community banker with our partner Amplify Credit Union to explore other ways to improve her credit. She bought a car and used her tax refund to repay the loan to improve her credit. She researched options and her Empowerment Partner connected her to a first-time home buyer program.
- Lara and her children graduated from Saint Louise House after just two years. She had increased her income by 20%, started a savings account, paid off a new car, and moved into a home of her own!
What advice would you give those who are considering applying for the Q-mmunity Gives grant?
We would advise those who are considering applying for the Q-mmunity Gives grant to apply! We did not receive an award the first year we applied but were successful in the second year. The process itself is a great opportunity to share your story with a new community. In addition, the award breakfast was a fun event and another opportunity to engage with new supporters who are committed to ensuring that everyone has access to the resources they need to thrive. This grant raised our visibility in the community. We saw a significant increase in engagement on our socials in the days after the announcement of the grant.
What is next for your organization and what goals do you have for future growth and impact?
Saint Louise House plans to continue to grow our focused support for children. We are in the process of further refining our approach to identifying early children who need additional support in school. We are expanding the lens through which we evaluate children’s needs beyond just school attendance, to include academic and behavioral challenges also.
The uncertain funding environment has put our hopes to expand through additional apartments on pause for the near term. While the board is developing a long-term plan for growth, we will continue to focus on quality of services and improved outcomes for families as well as on developing the infrastructure we need to be ready to scale when the right opportunity arises.