2022 Impact Report
A peek behind the numbers from last year
Homeless to Home
Ever wondered where people get housed?
Wings gets referrals from our various partner agencies around the county (see our Partners tab) to help support people that move into housing after homelessness. Our Welcome Home Program provides stabilizing services to people who were homeless in Santa Cruz. We occasionally provide out of county support if case managers can help with the deliveries themselves.
Domestic Violence Survivors
61 of our 181 household participants in our Welcome Home program are domestic violence survivors. For some, that was the cause of their homelessness, when they had to flee a bad situation. For others, they experienced it long ago. And for some, it is ongoing still.
Most people are a household of one
This is important because even though everyone wants to help families with young kids if we want to move the needle on homelessness, single people HAVE to be part of this conversation.
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Housing families helps prevent homelessness downstream because homelessness as a child is the only reliable predictor of whether or not someone will experience homelessness as an adult. Both tactics, a focus on families while also bolstering support for single adults, are essential to bringing about the change we need in this community.
Our Financials
We think of our budget beyond programs and admin.
We think about it in terms of sustainability, operations, and volunteer management. How well are we planning for the future of Wings and those who will need our services? How much are we spending on operating our programs, from "keeping the lights on" to buying supplies? These are the questions we ask to make sure we're spending wisely for our program outcomes.
People invest in us because we turn money into real change.
We take that investment seriously and focus on sustainability, making sure Wings is here to serve our community for years to come, in whatever ways are needed. We are people-powered: our people are our programs. Our services are only as good as the people who envision, develop, oversee, lead, implement, and sustain them day after day, year after year. There are no volunteer services without volunteer management. No community organizing without organizers. We invest in our staff and volunteers to ensure high-quality programs and better services to our participants. We turn every dollar invested in us into dignity, stability, safety, and community resilience.
