Mercy Coalition

Reviewed by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation
Fundraise

$53 raised by 1 donor

0% complete

$15,000 Goal

If you’re around homeless services for very long, you quickly realize that individuals experiencing homelessness need more than services. Those impacted need acknowledgement, friendship, dignity, and a voice in their own paths. They need a trauma-informed environment that can absorb, alleviate and accompany over the long haul.

They need a community that’s not just merciful, but restorative.

With our many friends and partners, we’ve come to understand some groundwork principles:

1. Poverty is far more than a lack of material resources, or a lack of access to services. It is a lack of agency for oneself, in all the physical, economic, emotional, social and spiritual dimensions of that.

2. Deficiency-oriented social services models have a hole in them. When we focus solely on poverty as material lack, we can unintentionally reinforce a cycle of habitual need without ever effectively addressing the absence of personal agency. To define individuals only by what they need is to force a needful self-identity on them. It robs them of nuance and dimension.

3. A holistic social services model must be assets-oriented. It meets urgent material needs, but it also intentionally values the skills, knowledge and experiences of each individual and creates avenues to leverage those assets into agency.

4. Holistic poverty reversal takes time. Cycles of impoverishment become deeply ingrained, and it's only through the sustained, long-term support of trusted friends and safe environments that those cycles can be interrupted. Constant encouragement, possibility and shared resilience are game-changing ingredients. This is doubly true for heavily traumatized populations like those experiencing homelessness.

We're exploring new ways to embody these principles in all that we do - from our holistic healing spaces like the RECOVERY CAFE WEST SACRAMENTO and the workforce development initiatives in our J.A.M ACADEMY, to the family table of our THRIVE LIVES life-skills group, and the supportive services we provide at the City of West Sacramento's PROJECT HOMEKEY.  From the workplace and the social space to living environments, our goal is to build pockets of restorative community that can empower individuals and break cycles, allowing us all to thrive together.


Mission

OUR MISSION:

The Mercy Coalition exists as an expression of tangible and intangible embrace to those impacted by homelessness and poverty in West Sacramento.

We are a diverse and inclusive community collaborative, mobilized for works of compassion and empowerment, holding reverence and worth for each individual while creating restorative community for hope and healing.

OUR VISION:

We want to help build a West Sacramento where everyone has a sustainable pathway to physical, emotional and spiritual shelter, and where acceptance and encouragement are the two resources that encase every other.

We envision a people of different backgrounds, different faiths, different races & ethnicities, and different ideologies, linked in unity by a surpassing ethic of selfless service to the most vulnerable, and to one another.

OUR VALUES:

CULTURAL HUMILITY - We want to hear and understand, not dictate and assume. We seek to identify and harpoon our own entitlement.

DIVERSITY - We are awed by the richness, beauty and strength of the full human kaleidoscope. We seek to live and work in its nexus.

EQUALITY - We are allies and advocates for the marginalized in any context. We consider ourselves to be agents of change wherever there are disparities.

INCLUSION - The unseen, rejected and dismissed are our family. We have a seat at the table for all whose identities have been marred by culture or circumstance.

ENCOURAGEMENT - We see and speak the good. We see and speak the beauty. We see and speak the noble, the laudable, and the admirable.

RESPECT - We honor others. We appreciate alternative viewpoints. We meet people where they are, rather than judging where we think they should be.

ADAPTABILITY - We take joy in our agility when things don’t go as planned. (And let’s face it: things rarely go as planned.)

FAITH - We believe in possibility, in each other, and that earnest love unlocks the spiritual, and vice-versa.

Needs

1) Funding for Emergency Food Bags (EFBs) – In 2023, MC provided 11,930 EFBs to the City of West Sacramento’s Project Homekey. However, the need continues to rise. While we are grateful for our community partners, we are unable to keep up with the increasing need. We need donors like you to help us meet this need, expand our capacity, and continue our mission here at MC.

2) Funding for Recovery Café meals – A warm and welcoming midday meal is the staple that unites the community around which all else is built. As the need becomes greater, so does the expense.

3) IT Infrastructure – Although we are thankful for WSMC’s enormous growth, such expansion also necessitates supportive structures to ensure proper reporting, compliance, and the long-term health of the organization. Unfortunately, these additions also come with additional cost, putting further strain on WSMC’s operating capacity.

4) Evergreen donors – While we are fortunate to receive funding from a variety of sources, these revenues only cover a portion of what WSMC needs to enact its mission. At the end of the day, we could not exist without the support of our generous community partners and donors. However, your donation can have a longer-lasting impact and provide greater financial stability in the form of a monthly gift. Fortunately, this year Giving Edge has made it easy for donors to meet this need by turning their contributions into a monthly gift!

Equity Statement

The Mercy Coalition of West Sacramento is passionate about inclusion, equity and diversity, and we strive to foster a sense of belonging and empowerment within our office, across the services we provide, and the community at large. On a daily basis, we strive to provide a host of services and a framework of support to our diverse clientele. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are integral parts of the Mercy Coalition’s history, organizational culture, and identity.

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

Mercy Coalition

Year Established

2017

Tax id (EIN)

81-3581571

Mission Category

Human Services

Operating Budget

$250,001-$500,000

Organization Need

Funding: Unrestricted

Demographics Served

Seniors, Low-income individuals/families, Homeless/Underhoused/Unhoused

Local Counties Served

Yolo

Equity Statement

Equity Statement

Address

929 Drever St.
West Sacramento, CA 95691

Service areas

West Sacramento, CA, US

Yolo, CA, US

Sacramento, CA, US

Phone

916-509-3566

Email

office@wsmercycoalition.org

Website

http://www.wsmercycoalition.org

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