GETTING READY
Local social services agencies refer families who have secured housing to us.
We visit the family, talk with them about their needs and take measurements of their homes.
We make a detailed list of needs, including size constraints, color preferences, and whether the items should be new (linens and towels) or whether they can be gently used (furniture). We send this sign up list to past and potential donors.
Within a week of our visit to the family, we give them a "starter kit": including new beds, pillows, sheets, and towels; basic kitchen items; and a temporary folding table and chairs to keep them going until the rest of the furnishings arrive on "Welcoming Day".
We also ask for cash donations for new mattresses, box springs, and bed frames, purchased from Mancini's Sleepworld at a non-profit discount, as well as for any critical items that aren't donated.
“It’s hard work putting beds together, hanging pictures and drapes all in one afternoon but there’s nothing like seeing the faces of the families when they come home.” ~ Jim W., Volunteer
ON WELCOMING DAY
Morning
Donors drop off smaller sized donations at drop off point.
Volunteers check items in and pack them up for delivery to each family home.
Volunteer movers from Birch Circle Movers, North Bay Moving & Storage, and Robb & Messer Moving and Storage pick up large furniture items in their trucks and bring them to the drop off point. All donations are then loaded onto the two trucks, each bound for one family's home.
Afternoon
Families leave their homes for a few hours.
Volunteer moving trucks take all items to the two homes and install large furniture pieces.
Volunteers unpack everything else, hang pictures, put away kitchen items, make the beds.
Families come back to a fully furnished and outfitted home where they can relax, study, have meals, and be a family.
“Thank you so much. It’s not just what you did, it’s how you did it.” ~ Laura, handicapped mother who lives with her son, a single Dad who is a chef in a Marin restaurant
“On behalf of our agency, we would like to thank you for the wonderful work your group did this past Saturday. I was just at Maraea’s home; she was extremely grateful for all the transformations in her apartment! The boys showed me their rooms and their bikes with a lot of joy. They said that they had seen these things happen on TV, but they never imagined that they were going to be part of something like this themselves.” ~ Isaura R., Case Manager, North Marin Community Services
Welcoming Home is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund, a California nonprofit corporation and registered 501(c)(3) organization, Tax ID (EIN) 46-1323531.