On Saturday, June 26th, 15 local artists set up their beautiful creations at the Matthews House and generously spent the day with us in order to raise money for our programs. From jewelry and purses to woodworking and pottery, 20% of all sales went to the Matthews House. Volunteers from Emmaus Road Church and The Matthews House provided a BBQ as well. It was a new endeavor and while the weather wasn't as cooperative as we'd have liked, it was a good solid start on a new event that we're looking forward to growing next year.

Many thanks to our organizer and displaying artist, Marsha Krygier, and all our artists.

Beyond the Fringe – Susan Bergs, handsewn purses and sachets

Lone Tree Pottery – Abbey Rothenbuehler

Tina Kellogg, glass artist

Earth Spirit Pottery – Nancy Williams

Swing Station Studio, Heather Hallberg – handmade purses and housewares  

Fox Ryde Gardens, Susan Buchele Rowland & Curtis Rowland – handcrafted herbal products

Amber Lovelace – fused glass jewelry

L.E. Smith Artworks, Leslie Smith – jewelry

Carr Creative, Ann Carr – handsewn women's jackets, tops, capris and accessories

Monty Weymouth, photographer

John I. Giem, Woodworker (work can be seen at Timeless Creations)

Sage Designs – Rochelle Sage, fountains, pottery, mosaic art

Shiloh Soapworks – Kaylene Baughman, handmade soaps

Saturday, June 26, 11-5

Fun in the Sun!

Don't miss the first annual Matthews House art and craft fair.

Sixteen local art and craft vendors will have items for sale inside and outside the house. All are seasoned professionals who were juried into this event. A great variety will be represented; pottery, jewelry, stained glass, wood, bookmarks, cards, prints, handmade clothes, purses, scarves, soaps, lotions, lavender products.

20% of arts and craft sales will go to support the Matthews House programming.

Arts & Crafts!

Food and fun for the whole family!

Facepainting!

Please join us at the Matthews House, 726 Mathews St, Fort Collins.

In the last couple of years, Mike & Greg Labate and their staff at Mr. Mechanic have donated a lot of time and energy to youth and young adults at the Matthews House by donating pre-sale inspections. The Mr. Mechanic crew has helped tremendously by assisting Matthews House youth in making wise choices when purchasing used vehicles. This life skill empowers young adults to make economical choices when choosing their first car, a major step towards achieving self-sufficiency. Thank you Mr. Mechanic, we are so grateful for your efforts.  You are making a difference in the lives of individuals and in our community!

Saturday, June 19, 12-4, Rolland Moore Park

All Proceeds Benefiting The Matthews House Event

Presented by Veritas and Sponsored by The Wright Life.

Complementary Food Provided by Mama Roni's Pizza.

Tournament Rules:

• 7-12 person Co-ed teams, ages 13-18
• Double Elimination,
• Standard Ultimate Frisbee Rules
• Prize for the Winning Team: Gift Certificates to the Wright Life 

Registration Fee: $5 Pre-registration. $8 Day-of-event Registration More info and registration on event Facebook page

Enjoy breakfast for a donation at Snooze, An A.M. Eatery, 144 W Mountain, Fort Collins. At their pre-opening celebration on Saturday, April 17th you can not only be one of the first to dine at the newest location of this popular restaurant, but your delicious meal will be free in exchange for a donation which will go 2/3 to the Matthews House and 1/3 towards the CSU Hospitality/Agriculture Scholarship Fund.

Half the restaurant will be by reservation only, (you can make a reservation here) and half will be for walk-ins.

Hope you can make it – it will tasty!

This past weekend one of our youth was given the opportunity to pursue her dreams.

Growing up, she knew only abuse and abandonment, living in cars with her mother and never having a stable living environment. Since then, she has lived in multiple foster homes, seeking adoption.

In the last few years, she's become a cheerleader at her high school. She attends practice and games every week with the squad. This is one of the first times in her life that she's been able to be just a teenager with no other worries. Cheerleading has become not only a diversion, but a passion and a place where she finds community and confidence, and where she finally feels a sense of belonging. One of her dreams is to meet professional cheerleaders and to experience cheerleading on the next level.

At the Keeping Dreams Alive Banquet this past weekend, Realities for Children made this dream a reality. This young woman will be participating in a 7-month cheerleading training camp with the Denver Bronco's Cheerleaders! She'll be fitted for her very own uniform and will have the opportunity to cheer at 4 home games with the team. Two of the Bronco's cheerleaders were on hand to present the award to a very excited young woman at Saturday's Banquet.

This is just one example of how Realities for Children, really is Keeping Dreams Alive for youth in our community who are coming out of a childhood marred by abuse and neglect. As the Matthews House staff helped with the nomination process, this young woman told us that "Every time I have wished for something it has not come true…" For this young woman, this is her first opportunity to really see that dreams are worth having because they really can come true.

Read more about the relationship of the Matthews House to Realities for Children here.

This Thursday, March 25th, Whole Foods Market in Fort Collins will be holding a Community Giving Day to benefit the Matthews House. This means they will be donating 5% of total store sales for the day to the Matthews House.

Everyone needs groceries, so put it on your calendar and plan to shop for your tasty, healthy food next Thursday, March 25th at Whole Foods and help empower at-risk youth to pursue a future of promise and hope!

We've known for some time that a lack of transitional and emergency housing is a large stumbling block for many youth in our program and our community. Now it's time to do something about it.

Here is a note from our Executive Director and Founder, Jerri Howe, talking about how we're going to do that, and how you can help.

Greetings from the Matthews House,

Many of us are aware that we have youth in our community living in unsafe places. They have little or no family support. This tragedy was highlighted just last week when we were called to provide a safe place for an 18 year old girl who finally got the courage to leave an abusive situation with her stepfather. This young lady is too old for foster care and the abuse was not considered domestic violence. She has a 2 year old daughter so the only solution was for the 18 year old to go to a shelter and her daughter be placed in foster care. So not to bring more trauma to the situation by separating mom and child, we were able to provide temporary shelter through a host home until other arrangements were made.

Because we have seen an increase in homeless youth and youth lacking caring adults, we have decided to reach out to the community to build our Host Home program. We have engaged a part time director who has years of experience in community based alternative housing options for youth. We will be holding two information sessions. If you have an interest or know of someone who might, please plan to attend or pass along this information to others. As we have experienced in the past, when awareness for unmet needs is raised in our community caring individuals always step forward to help. Thank you for your consideration of attending or passing along information about these information sessions.

Joy to your day,

Jerri

A Matthews House Host Home provides transitional and emergency housing for youth. Stays may range from one week to 6 months.  As a Matthews House Host Parent, you will be trained and supported to take a young adult into your home and help prepare them for transition on their own.

Please join us for an Open House to learn more about becoming a Host Family.
Wednesday, February 3, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
or
Thursday, February 4, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

Please RSVP today: Gkoenig@thematthewshouse.org
or call Gwen at #970.217.7273 or sign up here.

Local Nonprofits are working together to raise awareness during Mentor Month.

The Larimer County Mentoring Coalition is celebrating January as National Mentor Month. Mentor Month is a national campaign, first introduced in 2002, which is spearheaded by the Harvard Mentoring Project, MENTOR, and the Corporation for National and Community Service and focuses attention on the positive impact mentoring can have on young lives and the need for mentors in our communities. This campaign helps identify how each of us—individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities, and nonprofits—can work together to increase the number of mentors and assure brighter futures for our young people. “At any given time there are hundreds kids on mentoring waiting lists in Larimer County. Some of these kids get very discouraged, waiting years for a match.” said Kathleen Vasa, Volunteer Program Coordinator, Volunteers of America Northern Colorado Services.

"Thank Your Mentor Day" is January 22, 2009, which many mentoring programs select as a day of recognition for their volunteers and for Mentor Month. We encourage you to think of the mentors in your life—a team coach, teacher, concerned neighbor, or another caring adult—and take a few minutes to thank them and then consider becoming a mentor yourself. The Larimer County Mentoring Coalition consists of multiple mentoring organizations committed to raising awareness of the need for mentors, and to recruiting and retaining high quality mentors for children and young adults in Larimer County. Mentoring opportunities range in time commitment and availability to ensure there is an opportunity to fit any lifestyle.

Larimer County Mentoring Coalition members are Volunteers of America Northern Colorado Services, Boys and Girls Clubs of Larimer County, The Matthews House, Partners Mentoring Youth of Larimer County, Turning Point Center for Youth and Family Development, Larimer Center for Mental Health, and Larimer County Human Services, Children, Youth and Family Division.

“It’s our goal to become a one-stop-shop for all who are interested in becoming a mentor in Larimer County.” said Vasa, “Individuals who are interested can call 970-472-9630 for more information about mentoring and the mentoring opportunities in Larimer County.”

Written by

Kathleen Vasa, Volunteer Program Coordinator,

Volunteers of America Northern Colorado Services
(970) 472-9630
voarsvp@frii.com

If you are interested in mentoring or volunteering at the Matthews House, we'd love to have you. Please contact Steve

Yesterday's Coloradoan included the picture above and the article below.

The photo: CSU professor Ken Smith, center, poses with CSU culinary students who served a Thanksgiving meal at The Matthews House.

After just 4 years, we’ve seen some major life changes and we now have youth who've successfully completed our program who are coming back and wanting to help others coming from similar situations. We have seen great results in our program and it is great to have the community agencies and media recognize our success as well.

The article:

Agencies display proven record of aid

BY SARA B. HANSEN
SaraHansen@coloradoan.com

Pathways Past Poverty provided money to prominent agencies in 2009 in an effort to showcase best practices for helping move people from poverty to self-sufficiency.

Pathways Past Poverty, an initiative of the United Way of Larimer County, provided $35,000 for The Matthews House and $50,000 to Project Self-Sufficiency.

Both agencies have a proven record of helping people become self-sufficient, said Marija Weeden-Osborn, Pathways Past Poverty coordinator and community investment associate.

The goal is to help them expand their reach, Weeden-Osborn said."When we look at this thing, we can show that we can move more people than Matthews House or Project Self-Sufficiency on their own," she said.

Matthews House serves 16- to 21-year-old residents who are aging out of the foster-care system and youths on parole who have virtually no family.

Project Self-Sufficiency helps low-income, single parents achieve economic independence by assisting with education, housing, child care, transportation, employment and health.

Matthews House first assesses the physical and mental-health needs, housing needs, employment experience, education and life skills of its clients, said Jerri Howe, executive director. Then it works to create a program for participants and meets weekly with them to discuss their goals.

"We're not what I call a flop house," Howe said. "Don't just come expecting handouts." The goal is to get the children to see they have a future outside of survival mode, Howe said. And Matthews House does that by getting its clients to help create an independent living plan. The agency helps with finding housing, internships, apprenticeships and jobs.

Matthews House has the staff to work with 65 to 70 people at a time and tries to keep a balance of 16 to 20 participants for each staff member so they can build relationships, Howe said, and really work to help the clients develop solutions.

The agency also relies on volunteers. "We have art teachers, music teachers, sewing instructors and more come to Matthews House to volunteer," Howe said. "The youths see these community members donating time, and they see that sense of community. It means so much for them to see that people care for you even if they aren't being paid to care for you." …

(complete article here)