At Celebration of Hope this year - our annual benefit dinner fundraiser, Jan, LLM's CEO, gave a surprise announcement of a new initiative we will be starting in 2022. As you are part of our Lower Lights family we wanted you too to know and be involved in this vision and important new mission!
As our third decade draws to a close, we at Lower Lights have turned our eyes towards the most vulnerable members of our family.
Many of us, donors, volunteers, and staff have been haunted by the needs of the children in our neighborhoods and within the families we serve. Then, in December of 2020, God opened the door and I’m proud to announce we have walked through it.
In 2022, Lower Lights will open our Child Enrichment Center.
It will be a quality early childhood education center, not only providing excellent pre-school services, but childcare and after school programming for kids from birth to 12. Our mission is to not only enrich the lives of the children, but of their families, providing dependable and quality child care for a very affordable price, so under resourced parents can work and build financially stable homes for these kids.
But that is not all-we also intend to battle the social injustices faced by those working within the childcare industry. Through Lower Lights’ Transitional Employment program, the Child Enrichment Center will employ 10-12 people, offering on-site training, certification support, performance mentoring, and even college tuition for those entering the child care field.
Employees will start with wages 25% higher than industry averages in our area and good benefits. Our Board of Directors has established a solid business plan and I am thrilled to report that we have already raised nearly 60% of the operations budget for our first year.
But make no mistake. This is the biggest undertaking in the history of Lower Lights Ministries, and it is by far our biggest expansion ever. It is all for the smallest members of our family, and it is worth every penny, hour, and every sacrifice we will make. Because we believe these kids will then be a part of building a better world.
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