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Monthly Highlights

Step into the world of Elevate Community Ministries and read more about the big wins and all the in-betweens!​

updated 12/9/24

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  • Team Still Thinkin' finally won on Trivia night - they have attended every Trivia night since it's inception

  • Participated as a host site for a wellness professional development day for BC teachers - 40 teachers spent the day enjoying board games

  • Had a wonderful turnout for Unplugged - five young musicians performed to a full house

  • Provided cookies for the BC Middle School Student Council to pass out to teachers

  • Hosted the Marriage Course dinner for 18 couples

  • Hosted a socialization group from the Midland County ESA

  • We had 1180 transactions in November

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Metrics

NEW customers in 2024 - 1,949 (compared to 865 in 2023)

Number of visits in 2024 - 16,297 (compared to 12,129 in 2023)

Total sales in 2024 - $565,041 (compared to $358,613 in 2023)

 

Other good stuff:

Crafty people with generous hearts have been crocheting/knitting all year and have donated many hats, scarfs and even slippers to the Bridge. These items are always available as a bonus item for our customers, however to celebrate Thanksgiving (and because the weather finally turned cold), every family was able to choose a "hand-made with love" item!

 

Many customers were asking if the Bridge would have turkeys this year - to be honest, we hadn't made any effort to do so since in the past we have always celebrated Christmas with a turkey dinner. However, God changed our minds by leading a very generous donor to send in a check for $2,500 which covered the cost of 100 turkeys and all the fixings for a meal. These complete meals (still had to be cooked!) were sold for $15.00. We announced this opportunity and sold out of the first 50 turkeys in a day and a half. The second round of 50 turkeys sold in less than a day. Unfortunately there were some families that didn't receive a turkey dinner that would have liked one, but we are still learning a lot at the new location!

 

Looking ahead to Christmas, we want to purchase 150 hams for families. We are working out the details of how to get them into the hands of our customers with dignity, love and respect.  If you feel led to make a donation towards these hams and potentially other items to go with the hams, it would be greatly appreciated by the Bridge and our customers. There are so many good causes - especially this time of year - so please never give out of obligation to anything, but to prayerfully talk with our generous and loving God. 2 Corinthians 9:12: "this service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God". God's word continues to explain how others will praise God for your obedience.  Isn't our God amazing!

 

Check back next month for all the excitement of the year end totals and Christmas stories that God will share with us throughout the month. If you want to be a part of these stories - come and volunteer a couple hours and experience a story for yourself. It may be a customer story or maybe, it will be a story just for you!  

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  • 4 cars donated and 4 cars sold

  • Saved clients about $38,208 on work performed.

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  • Kid's Creek Early Care and Education is celebrating this Fall season with a Halloween Parade and Pumpkin Carving

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  • Training Tomorrow's Workforce Today: Pivot Point's 1st layer of ministry is its Job Creation program. Individuals with barriers to employment are paid while addressing their barriers through targeted career education and self-development efforts. In addition to skill development and technical training, Pivot Point scholarship recipients are immersed in God's work here on earth through daily devotions, scripture, prayer, and community outreach. 

  • 6 individuals were recipients of scholarships 

  • 3 individuals transitioned to better employment opportunities

 

Making the Unaffordable - Affordable:

Major appliances retail between $600-$3000+. In addition to the wide variety of appliances available for retail purchase, the ALICE community will often pay between 25-75% above retail in interest fees over the life of credit debt or rental of new appliances. Pivot Point appliances sell for 25-30% of comparable retail. Although not new appliances, each unit sold comes with a 90-day warranty and has been cleaned and tested after necessary repairs have been made.

  • November: 43 appliances sold,  saving a minimum of $25,800 (had each appliance had been purchased new)

  • YTD: 553 appliances sold saving a minimum of $248,850 (had each appliance been purchased new)

 

Support through Donation of Appliance:

100% of appliances that are sold through Pivot Point are donated by individuals in our community. Approximately 1/2 of all donations are repairable and able to be resold. In addition to the potential savings that appliance sales provide our customers, we save over $1,000 a month by utilizing recycled parts from appliances that are unable to be repaired. After non-repairable appliances are sourced for as many recyclable parts as possible the shells of the units are again recycled and sold for scrap, creating approximately $1000/ month in additional financial support for Pivot Point.

  • We have been blessed:

    • with nearly 90 donated appliances in November

    • more than 1,200 donated appliances YTD

Home to Stay Partnership:

Individuals or families work through various local referring agencies to identify qualifying financial needs based on income or circumstance. Home to Stay works with funders such as United Way to support the Pivot Point partnership through a voucher program. The recipient of a Home to Stay/ Pivot Point Appliance voucher contributes $20/ appliance, and Home to Stay pays the remaining balance.  Although the pricing of appliances at Pivot Point are intended to make the unaffordable - affordable it is recognize that often, even the lower than retail pricing structure is too much of a stretch for some individuals. 

  • November: 7 families/ individuals, 11 total appliances

  • Jan - Dec. 6: 70+ families/ individuals, 100+ appliances

*a separate non-profit entity, sister company to Elevate Community Ministries

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  • Had a record number of patients for the month of November

  • The December Giving Circle breakfast went well, and another is scheduled for January 10.

  • Our patient visits are at 1,916 and 3,870 total visits. We are anticipating hitting 2,000 patients and 4,000 visits next month. 

Support Group

Dignity

elevating lives through maintaining human dignity

Therapist

Affordability

elevating lives through affordable solutions

Helping Hands

Partnership

elevating the community through local involvement

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