Faith and Grace uses grant money to purchase tech, hire advocates

Kathi DeClark, president and board chair, said Faith House is an emergency shelter for victims of violence, and grace House is a transitional house for those preparing to move out.

“The point is that they have a job, they have child care, and we want them to save money so that when they are ready to leave, if we can find them housing, they’ll have some money,” DeClark said.

The recently added Mobile Advocacy program is for someone who needs help, but does not need housing. 

Earlier this year, Faith and Grace received a grant from the city, and the money has been used to make several big purchases, as well as to pay advocates.

Originally, the nonprofit requested $196,600 but was asked along with the other applicants to reduce their request by 20% and received $157,280. 

DeClark said it was the first opportunity they had to receive a grant, as they needed to have four years of financials, and when applying for the grant, one thing they knew they needed was an executive director.

“We were very specific with what we needed,” DeClark said. “I hadn’t wanted to spend our donated money, which we call our victims fund, on salaries. I didn’t want to use it on computers, office things.”

$64,000 of the money is being used to pay an executive director recently hired by the organization, Amanda Castro.

Castro said before she started working there, they had to write proposals on each exact thing, including how much it would cost and why it was needed.

Besides hiring an executive director, the nonprofit used $23,680 to buy a 2018 Nissan for those who need to travel outside the city.

“We needed a reliable car for the women who may have to go visit their children in Phoenix, or go visit their doctor in Kingman,” DeClark said.

DeClark said the the car is also used to travel to court out of town. 

Additionally, $4,600 was used to purchase computer hardware and software to track statistics and log data.

Previously, they had to keep records by hand, but now, DeClark said they can use computers. 

“The advocates put all that information in their laptops and computers and it keeps excellent track of everything that we are doing,” DeClark said.

Castro said the technology is also being used to keep track of the grant and create progress reports that are sent to the city.

The remaining funding will be used for the executive director’s salary and advocate salaries. 

$64,000 was awarded for the executive director’s salary and $65,000 for advocate salaries.

“We’re halfway through both of those amounts and the ending is at the end of February to have it used, and we will have it used by the end of February,” Castro said.

DeClark said they are grateful to the city council and mayor for the grant and that it has helped them in the community. 

“I think as a result of getting the grant, that established us as a solid, financially stable, non-profit agency in the community,” DeClark said. “We were new for a while, and now we work with all the other nonprofits, we have a thread that goes through all of them as a result of the process.”

Organizations they work with include The Clothes Closet, River Cities United Way, Women with Willpower, Soroptimist, and Arizona at Work. Several of these groups also received grant money from the city.

DeClark said having a partnership with other nonprofits allows them to share resources, and that is has made the community stronger. 

Castro also said there are many partnerships involved in being able to have the outcome we want the ladies to have when they walk out the door.

“That’s with grace,” she added.