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SEEING POTENTIAL, NOT POVERTY
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We are thankful for your commitment to Kootenai County as we work together to promote the human flourishing of our neighbors. Here's a peak into what we've been up to:
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Rides For A Reason (RIDES) - Transportation & Development Classes
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Rides for a Reason (RIDES) was born from a gap we discovered through Christmas for All Year applications for car repairs: applicants would ask for assistance with car troubles only to learn from our trusted auto repair partners that their cars were not worth repairing. In addition to owning non-working cars, many of these applicants were stuck paying high-interest auto loans on their non-working cars.
COVID wreaked havoc on used car pricing and availability. Buying a reliable used car today that will fit into the budget for our lower wage households is extremely difficult.
To bridge this gap, RIDES officially launched in April 2023 thanks to the generosity of donors parting with their used cars and Kootenai Technical Education Campus
's (KTEC) auto/truck repair instructors and their students (who came up with Rides for the name of this program). Two vehicles “sold” in 2023. For 2024, we estimate “selling” another 6-8 KTEC repaired cars. Two of these sold within the last 30 days.
As most of us know, Kootenai county is rural, and public transportation is limited. Having a reliable, working car is a vital need, but owning a car comes with its challenges, too, such as affording insurance, gas, and routine maintenance and repairs. We want to empower the people who buy a car from RIDES to handle these challenges for a LIFETIME so that their transportation needs can be met in an enduring and sustainable way.
With the help of our amazing partner organizations, those buying cars through RIDES will attend:
- A 3-week budgeting course through Mountain West Bank
that offers 1x1 coaching with a professional banker covering budgeting, savings, and debt management. The class will go over vehicle maintenance costs, loans, insurance, and savings for a future vehicle.
- A basic car repair workshop (Car Care 101) through Lake City Auto
that will launch in June.
These courses will equip people who buy a car from RIDES to steward their finances and their "new" vehicles.
Another vitally needed resource is access to low-interest loans which is now available through Mountain West Bank. This will open the doors to promote and encourage car donations from our community and we will work with our auto repair/dealer partners like KTEC
, Mike White Ford
, Knudtsen Chevrolet
, Lake City Auto
, and Crossroads Auto
, to increase the number of cars available. By the end of 2025, we hope to reach a target of 40-50 cars that will be "sold" through RIDES.
We are thrilled that every purchaser of a RIDES vehicle will not only walk away with safe, reliable transportation, but tools for success that will last a lifetime!
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Meet our most recent RIDES customer: Abigail. She is 17-years old, attending her last year of high school along with some college classes. Abigail works part-time to pay for many of her own expenses. She originally applied for car repairs and found out her vehicle was not worth repairing. She needed reliable transportation to get back and forth to school and work, and we added her to the waitlist for RIDES.
On April 26th, Abigail purchased her “new” car with money she had saved
! She is looking forward to driving to Maine for college in the fall without the worry of unreliable transportation. Abigail stated: “I love my new car so much! It drives so smoothly and has so much space. I feel spoiled!”
As a freshman in college, Abigail will have a reliable, used car paid for out of her own savings and a foundational knowledge of budgeting and car maintenance thanks to the developmental courses offered by our RIDES partners.
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DOING BENEVOLENCE BETTER
(with dignity)
Reimagining charity is about digging into how we help the needy:
Not just loving with our hearts and hands but loving with our minds, too.
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Take a minute to think about the best learning experience you've had as an adult: what phrases come to mind to describe it? Many people list words such as: practical, hands-on, and personal. That's what we want to capture in the developmental classes we offer our neighbors.
This month, we are going over True Charity's " Real Results Webinar: Building Developmental Classes That Actually Work." In this webinar, True Charity hosts Jerilyn Sanders and Matt Seadore of The Chalmers Center
to provide some practical insight into how to craft developmental classes that actually work.
Sanders begins with the "why" for developmental classes and the importance of experiential learning when she says:
We "are in the business of trying to empower our low-income neighbors," and we "understand that poverty is not a one-dimensional program." "[If] we need holistic programs to address poverty, then we also need to be intentional about holistic learning experiences for our participants.”
Rather than thinking of education as the teacher having a bank of information to "deposit" into the minds of the learners, holistic learning environments position the learners to take ownership of their learning.
As adults, our brains are designed to learn when we are able to process information AND apply it. Here are some keys to success that Sanders and Seadore point to:
- Setup your "classroom" in such a way that communicates hospitality and inclusion
to your learners (e.g. sitting in a circle with the teacher seated alongside the learners).
- Cover less content
, but increase the amount of engagement through role playing, sharing ideas, using markers, etc.
- Offer practical application for each lesson
: what small steps
can you invite them to take that will apply the information learned today and tomorrow
? This "completes the circuit" of what they have learned in critical ways.
Sanders shares a story about a class she sat in on at Foundation House, a holistic, wraparound program for women in crisis pregnancy situations. During a previous class, one of the participants, Brooke, had asked the teacher about social anxiety. The teacher invited her to do some research and share it with the class. Sanders commented how Brooke shared the concepts of social anxiety, her own personal experience of how it had contributed to her addiction, and how she has taken steps to overcome it. Brooke took ownership of her learning and shared more effectively and meaningfully with her peers than the teacher could have.
Learning environments like these empower students to participate in their education, integrating it in ways that transform their lives.
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REFERRING PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
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Lake City Market
exists to demonstrate Christ's love by providing groceries for people in this community who are in crisis and need short-term assistance. Their goal is to address the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors to help them gain life independence so they can become God-honoring contributing members of the community. To do this, someone from the Market meets regularly with each neighbor to help them set goals, problem solve, and get connected to resources. This information is shared in Charity Tracker so that multiple organizations and churches can collaborate to provide resources with dignity that will help our neighbors move forward in life.
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Referring Partners are the boots on the ground, our community's Unsung Heroes, serving the poor who refer their clients to Charity Reimagined for specific assistance tailored to our work.
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BUSINESS PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
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Mountain West Bank
was founded in 1993 in Coeur d'Alene by local business leaders with the shared vision that community and banking could be one and the same. The bank now serves customers from 21 branches conveniently located across the states of Idaho and Washington. Mountain West Bank, a division of Glacier Bank, is big enough to provide the best in banking products and offerings and small enough to provide personal, exceptional service. Giving back to the communities it serves has always been an important part of the bank's mission.
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Business Partners offer their services at a discount in order to meet the needs of those rising out of hardship. They give clients the dignity of interacting in the business world for their needs, not just receiving handouts. The role played by these partners cannot be overstated!
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Donor's Corner: Why We Give
"We are impressed with the work Charity Reimagined is doing in our community to assist people in need. It is a truly reimagined
method of helping people to improve their circumstances and better their lives by providing a ladder to help them move out of situations that at times seem impossible to overcome. Partnering with those in need, so they are vested in the assistance received, gives hope and leads to eventually finding their way to improve their life with dignity and pride in their accomplishments to solving the problems they were facing.
We believe Charity Reimagined makes every dollar invested in someone in need work to that dollar’s fullest extent, providing the much-needed hand-up. Bless the work Charity Reimagined does for all their clients, and bless all the businesses, volunteers and individuals who support this most worthwhile charity, improving lives every day ."
- Jim and Colleen Denning
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If you're new or would like to learn more, we'd love to grab coffee with you and get connected. Your partnership makes effective charity in Kootenai County possible.
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OUR VISION
No matter how big or small, no single church, charity, or “helping” organization can meet all needs. But, by all of us working together through communication and collaboration to identify categories of care and responding appropriately, pride can replace shame, hope can replace despair, and lives can be changed.
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