The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County (WGC) is proud to announce its 2021 grant recipient for a program or organization focusing on Housing and Homelessness. The WGC members voted to award $10,000 to Mountain Home Montana, which provides housing for at-risk moms and kids, to help fund staff salaries and training there.

Originally established in 2000, Mountain Home is a non-profit organization located in Missoula whose mission is ​​to provide a safe home and nurturing community where young mothers discover their strengths, and children thrive. The group home allows housing for 12 families at a time, serving over 80 families a year through residential and follow-along support. Services include an evidence-based education/employment program; onsite mental health care for both parents and children; a community center offering parenting and life-skills classes; and the state’s first trauma-informed child care.

“Mountain Home is honored and very grateful to receive the generous $10,000 grant from the Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County. We deeply appreciate their support of the young moms and kids we serve and all the good they make possible,” said Mountain Home Montana’s Executive Director Steph Goble.  “Our locally developed, two-generational approach mirrors cutting-edge best practices for preventing future homelessness, poverty, and trauma.”  The pandemic, Goble added, has only reaffirmed the important role Mountain Home staff play in families’ stability and success. “This strategic and timely funding will help counter global staffing challenges with additional training, competitive salaries, and additional staffing to ensure the families we serve can thrive.”

The Women’s Giving Circle of Missoula County aims to amplify the power of women and nonbinary individuals by allowing them to pool their donations, and then, through a voting process, make collective choices for how best to serve the greater Missoula area. The WGC’s collaborative, member-led model promotes philanthropy and equity among its 100 members from diverse backgrounds and varying degrees of wealth. Each member, no matter whether they contribute the minimum $120 annual donation ($60 for students), or choose to give more, has an equal voice in deciding who receives the grants.

The $10,000 award to Mountain Home Montana is the WGC’s fifth grant since its inception in 2018, and brings the total amount it’s granted to $40,000. Past recipients include, the Missoula Food Bank’s Lived Experience Voices and Leaders (LEVL) program, a leadership and empowerment program for women who have experienced poverty; Free Cycles Missoula, which provides free bicycles and bicycle maintenance workshops to the public. In 2020, the WGC also granted two separate $5,000 awards, the first to YWCA Missoula’s emergency housing program, the second to EmpowerMT to support its BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) afterschool youth group.

The WGC is a program of your Missoula Community Foundation. The Missoula Community Foundation (MslaCF) enhances community vitality by inspiring community giving and strengthening nonprofits. Since 2001, MslaCF has awarded more than $1.7 million to create a thriving, unique and engaged community.