The Generational Impact Our Impact Investors Are Having
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
At Refuge Homes, we want to help at least 2,000 people break the cycle of generational poverty.
This isn’t the same as providing housing. Because while housing is what we do, it’s not our end goal.
Our goal is to create environments where lives can be changed.
The properties we acquire are used by nonprofit partners who are already doing incredible work across North Carolina. They provide the mentoring, recovery programs, discipleship, job training, and support that help people move from surviving to thriving.
We simply help offer one of the things that makes life-change possible: a safe, stable place to call home.
And the impact we, along with our nonprofit partners and the impact investors, are having is being felt across generations.
Changing the trajectory of a life
Imagine a 22-year-old woman who has just aged out of foster care. She's homeless, has little support, and is trying to figure out what comes next.
She’s at risk for being trafficked, experiencing an unwanted pregnancy, or going into poverty. For instance, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, young adults who age out of foster care experience significantly lower employment rates and earnings than their peers well into adulthood.
Now imagine that same young woman entering a program through one of our nonprofit partners.
She has a safe place to live and is surrounded by people who believe in her. Plus, she receives job skills training and discipleship. Instead of wondering where she'll sleep tonight, she can begin thinking about what tomorrow looks like.
Organizations like Path Changers and Hope + Vine (both of whom we partner with to provide housing) are helping young women like this write a different story.
And because that story changes one life today, it has the potential to change future generations as well.
Building a new life after prison
The same principle applies to someone leaving prison.
Reentry is difficult. Without stable housing, it's much harder to find employment, rebuild relationships, and avoid returning to old patterns.
That’s why we’re grateful to partner with organizations like Restorative Transitions and Jubilee Home, who use Refuge Homes properties as part of their reentry programs. It’s worth noting that one of those programs has experienced a 0% recidivism rate among its participants.
Think about what that means: A mother returns to her family instead of returning to prison, and a child grows up watching restoration instead of repeating the same cycle.
The impact is felt across generations.
Why housing matters
One story we've heard from the Raleigh Dream Center captures this perfectly…
A father entered one of their recovery programs and found a safe, stable place to live while working toward sobriety. Eventually, he got sober, found Christ, and was baptized. And later, the same thing happened to his wife.
Today, both of them serve others through Raleigh Dream Center. Their children have watched their parents' lives completely change.
Housing wasn't the reason their lives changed, but it created the environment where change could happen.
The stories that remind us why we do this
Every year, we attend celebrations hosted by our nonprofit partners. We hear from men and women whose lives have been transformed. Although every story is different, one thing comes up again and again: Having a safe place to live.
Each year, we hear folks talk about their housing experiences–how, through one of our nonprofit partners, they were able to live in a place where they could begin healing, focus on recovery, and start believing their future could look different from their past.
None of this happens without impact investors who believe in what we and these nonprofits are doing by providing stable, safe housing for these individuals.
Join us to create lasting change
Before a nonprofit can welcome someone into one of these homes, before someone can begin recovery, before a family can experience restoration, someone has to make that home available.
That's exactly what our impact investors do.
We invite you to join us.
When you invest with Refuge Homes, your money is helping us create environments where nonprofit partners can continue changing lives. And by changing lives now, future generations will reap the benefits.
