My Nonprofit Reviews

FESCO is supported through a coalition of churches, businesses and individuals. I am on the Board of Directors as a representative from my church. Throughout my ten year involvement with FESCO I have met many families who have benefited from FESCO with housing, therapy, skills training. Whenever and wherever I meet families who received FESCO services, they overwhelmingly share positive comments and more importantly, almost always ask about a specific staff person ("Is so and so still there? Oh, good! They were such a help to me!"). I was approached in a grocery store (while wearing a FESCO t-shirt) by an employee who shared she and her daughter lived at FESCO 15 years earlier and that the experience changed her life (and she wanted to know if Clarence was still the house manager - yes, he is). The primary fund raiser each year is the Shelter Shuffle – a 3 mile walk at the San Leandro Marina. It’s become quite a family affair as two or three of my sisters, two brothers-in-law, two nephews and two nieces have become involved as well – helping with registration, driving the shuttle vans, setting up course markers, and most important of all - getting our friends and co-workers to support the walk financially. My family has participated in the fund raising auctions, the back pack giveaway (for residents and former residents) and my niece helped develop a garden at Banyan. I know that FESCO provides great services with very little money. Unfortunately, the programs are not sufficiently funded through government money, and FESCO turns people into tax payers! Through emergency food and shelter to case management and counseling, FESCO staff helps families develop a plan to address their immediate and longer term needs and then helps them implement the plan. They help families develop the tools they will need; finding and keeping a job, saving money for a security deposit and rent, budgeting, therapy and parenting skills training. This is the dignified way to move families from homelessness to self-sufficiency. I’m proud to be associated with FESCO and share the good news about FESCO wherever I go!

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