With a goal of ending the cycle of homelessness and helping Quad Citians become self-sufficient, the Humility of Mary Housing, Inc. held its annual fundraising brunch.
The sixth annual Jazz Brunch is a major fundraising event for HMHI. The event was held Sunday, September 20, 2015 at the Crow Valley Country Club in Davenport, Iowa and featured jazz music from the Margaret Murphy-Webb Quartet from Chicago.
Sister Mary Ann Vogel said that the organization has been in operation for 25 years and their mission is to "affect change in people's lives."
"I always say that what we do here is actually work with two generations at a time," Vogel said. "When the parent is getting educated or job training and working toward their goals of self-sufficiency, it filters down into the children - and we see the children then going on and completing their education and becoming self sufficient themselves, so it's a way of breaking the cycles of homelessness."
Last year HMHI raised $33,000 and Vogel said they were hoping to surpass that amount this year. The event included a live auction to help reach that goal.
"As the government funding decreases the private funding has to increase," Vogel said. "We find that the people who donate who give to us always say that they appreciate what it is that we are doing, helping single parents, helping children in particular... They see that we really use the money that we receive to help the people we are serving."
Money raised at the event helps provide housing, support, and services to people in the program, according to Vogel. They have 47 furnished apartments that they have for families to live in for up to two years.
Vogel said a third of their funding comes from federal grants, another third comes from private grants, and the final third comes from donations.