My Nonprofit Reviews

We found Birch Community Services in February of 2020, right after buying our home. Honestly, the relief of temporarily not having to pay for groceries is what appealed to us the most. We were excited to be able to use that grocery savings to rebuild our emergency fund and maintain my stay-at-home mom role even though our monthly expenses were increasing now that home ownership was our state of being. Then Covid hit and the world shut down.
My husband ran a job training program for people with intellectual disabilities through Portland Community College and when campuses closed, so did his program. It was a big change to our income and instead of panicking about how we had spent most of our savings on our down payment, we were able to focus on the fact that we could get by and still be able to slowly and steadily save what we could thanks to BCS. Thankfully, my husband was able to shift into a different role (with a lower salary) at PCC. Over the next couple of years, we met several times, with Dino, our Financial Literacy Advisor through BCS. He helped us reevaluate our finances, and through the ReStart course, we were able to draft our family plan and have really honest conversations about prioritizing our family's needs.
Three and a half years after joining BCS, we are ready to graduate from the program. In that time, our family has been able to pay cash for our new-to-us mini-van, re-roof, upgrade our windows, and paint our house. All thanks to the skills and savings we have gained from being participants of BCS.
The best part of all, though, is the incredible relationships I have built through my time volunteering in the warehouse! I have loved being a part of the team at BCS so much, that I applied to work here. I am week two into my new career and still so incredibly filled with gratitude for everything BCS has done for my family.