DuPagePads has received a record-setting $5 million grant that officials are calling a “game-changer” in the fight against homelessness.
The Wheaton-based nonprofit is one of 32 recipients this year of a grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund. The fund, helmed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, has supported organizations that serve families with a total of $850 million in grants since 2018.
Donation is DuPagePads’ largest private gift
The $5 million gift is the largest private donation in DuPagePads’ 40-year history, and it will allow staff and volunteers to increase support to “help every family have a safe, stable place to call home,” DuPagePads leaders said in a media release.
“This incredible gift will accelerate our vision of a DuPage County where no family is left without shelter and no child sleeps overnight in a car,” April Redzic, president & CEO of DuPagePads, said in the release. “We are so grateful for the trust that the Day 1 Families Fund is placing in our work and what this donation will do to help us expand our outreach.”
DuPagePads plans to use the funding to better connect kids in emergency shelter to educational and socio-emotional supports and to move more quickly to get families experiencing homelessness into stable housing.
“This grant will allow us to meet families where they are — in cars, encampments or unsafe situations — and connect them quickly to safe interim shelter, housing and long-term stability,” Scott Austgen, chief programs officer at DuPagePads, said in the release.
How DuPagePads helps families overcome homelessness
DuPagePads describes itself as the county’s leading provider of emergency shelter, housing and support services for anyone experiencing homelessness. The organization operates a 24/7 interim housing center and a network of more than 200 supportive housing units, plus programs to help people without housing get jobs, improve their health and build toward long-term stability.
Since the $5 million from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund comes to recipients with “tremendous flexibility to use the funds in the ways that are most impactful in their communities,” Pads leaders said the funding will be a significant boost. It comes as the organization is seeing an “alarming increase of more families experiencing homelessness in DuPage County than ever before,” officials said.
“This investment could not have come at a better time,” Chad Pedigo, chief development officer at DuPagePads, said in the media release. “These funds are specifically needed … to best serve a rising need across our local neighborhoods.”
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