Human Services

Since 2001, the MCM Fund has proudly paid out over $141,114,464 in grants to non-profit organizations. In the area of Human Services, $69,682,058 has been paid out through June 2023.

FEATURED RECIPIENT

Serving homeless men, women, and children throughout Oregon

A $1M capital grant from the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund is enabling Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers to expand and meet the needs of even more people and families experiencing homelessness through the completion of its new Bybee Lakes Hope Center at the Jordan Schnitzer Campus. Located in the Port of Portland, the 155,400-square-foot building, owned by Portland-based philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer, is undergoing renovation to create a facility capable of providing the wide range of resources homeless people need to sustainably change their lives. Helping Hands has provided emergency shelter and transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness since 2002. Primarily staffed by people with experience, the organization utilizes its own proprietary database to offer trauma-informed, data-driven, person-centered homeless services at 11 centers across five Oregon counties.

Helping people create change that lasts through resources, recovery, and reentry

“The more we understand where a person comes from and the traumas they have experienced, the better we are able to help them. We treat people as individuals and take a trauma-informed approach to help them build skills, access resources, and regain the confidence to be self-sufficient again. We are incredibly grateful for the MCM Fund family seeing the need for more homeless services and reaching out to be part of the solution in such a meaningful way.” 

– Alan Evans, Founder and CEO, Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers

The Impact 

The grant is supporting Helping Hands to accomplish several goals by helping enable them to: 

• Complete the renovation of a 155,400-square-foot facility with 318 beds
• Care for up to 4,700 men, women, and children every year
• Serve three meals a day including a hot dinner, with healthy snacks available 24/7
• Complete a kitchen that will feature visiting chefs to provide culinary skills training
• Feature a medical, mental, and dental health bay to meet these needs on-site
• Include no-pay laundry rooms for participants, stocked with supplies 
• Build kennels on-site so people can safely board their pets to live and seek work
• Offer classes in areas like financial wellness, non-violent communication, yoga, writing, and more 
• Provide resources like vocational training and a range of recovery and trauma support groups