Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry

The path to self-sufficiency can sometimes begin at the most basic level of need. Mlm's community care centers provide food, rent and utility assistance, legal documents, household hygiene items, and diapers. Mlm food pantries average 50 clients per day, receiving food for themselves and their families.4,800 households received food from our pantries throughout the year including 384 older adult households which were provided with senior commodities each month. The saturday breakfast Ministry provided 12,555 meals to Kansas and Missouri individuals in midtown Kansas city, Missouri and northeast Kansas city, Kansas. 584 households received emergency rent or utility assistance, preventing them from the threat of homelessness.

Rarely are families homeless due to a single circumstance, and the path back to economic sustainability is often gradual. The family empowerment continuum provides year-long case management and long-term assistance to 112 households. Services including long-term assistance with housing needs, employment support, referrals for supportive services, financial literacy, household skills, and assistance with items such as clothing, bus passes, and personal identification. Based on an assessment of their long-term housing situation, employment, income resources, expenses, debts and credit rating, a case management plan is then designed to help clients stop living from crisis to crisis and start saving money, reduce their debt and build assets like a car, a home, or an education. To ensure permanent and lasting solutions are in place for our clients, mlm will continue to follow families for up to five years.

Mlm operates two permanent housing locations to serve the needs of chronically homeless, disabled and mentally ill individuals. Permanent, supportive housing has been shown to be the most effective method for addressing long term homelessness, especially for this population. The first priority for these programs is to get individuals off the streets. However, mlm also provides a number of individualized supports in the area of physical and mental health, socialization, alcohol and smoking cessation and healthy living which includes excercise, gardening, and nutrition. Mlm was able to serve 39 individuals in 2018 through two grants: grace homes and project care.