100+ Women Who Care Present $10.5K to Phoenix Rescue Mission’s Changing Lives Center
The Valley of the Sun chapter of 100+ Women Who Care, an informal group of local women who strive to donate $10,000 to four charitable nonprofits each year, presented $10,500 on May 26 to the women in recovery at Phoenix Rescue Mission’s Changing Lives Center for Women & Children, one of the largest long-term recovery programs in the country for women and their children.
The money will be used to support the center’s Food Services vocational development program, which helps women end their cycle of homelessness by providing management-level culinary skills to help them launch careers that will sustain them far into the future.
The 13-week program allows women like Michelle Rader to lay down a foundation for a career in culinary management and gives them a chance to become certified as food managers and learn in-depth knowledge about the inner workings of the restaurant business.
Rader was once homeless and addicted to drugs. After losing custody of her son, she found help at the center, entered the vocational development program and now manages the center’s social enterprise, Mission Possible Catering.
The Food Services program, which costs about $2 million annually to support, is funded almost completely by donations from private organizations, such as 100+ Women Who Care Valley of the Sun. The organization works to donate $10,000 to four charitable nonprofits each year. Once the nonprofit is chosen at each group meeting, the members of the group each write a check for $100. Often, the cumulative checks exceed the original goal of $10,000.
