Eugene Donates $12,200

Sponsors, Inc. transforms lives and strengthens the community by providing life-changing opportunities for people with conviction histories. Sponsors provides transitional, long-term and permanent housing in addition to a range of services including, but not limited to, employment assistance, mentoring, mental health and treatment services, all designed to reduce recidivism and improve the quality of life in our community. The agency operates 20 buildings on seven sites with over 200 units of housing. Since 1973, Sponsors has worked to enhance the safety of our community while providing the critical supports individuals returning home from prison need to be successful members of our community. The program has a proven track record of success: increasing housing and employment stability, reunifying families, and reducing recidivism. How can you help? Help build a Tiny House! We’re building a Tiny Home Community to serve homeless individuals who face the greatest challenges to secure housing. We need help from the community to raise the remaining $75,000 to fully fund the project and break ground this spring. The project will create ten new units of affordable housing on a campus with a community building, laundry facility and bike storage

Co-founders Julie Nowacki and Marian Stiegeler, LPC, MS-MHC, QMHP, CMHIMP have combined their individual passions to help children and teens who are suffering from emotional and social issues. Julie has 20 plus years helping manage singer/songwriters and is very passionate about seeing others pursue their dreams. She had a very close family member, Rod, who suffered from mental illness take his own life in October of 2016. This tragic event inspired Julie to use her experience to address the mental health crisis nationwide and especially in her own community. Her vision to implement a safe place where kids of all ages could come and express themselves while increasing their social and emotional intelligence inspired her to start having conversations with professionals and artists in the area. As a licensed professional counselor, Marian also has a passion for helping children. She has received training and valuable experience with children and families that has prepared her for this opportunity with ElRod Center. . So, when Julie and Marian met in Eugene, Oregon–they found that although their individual visions were incomplete, together their visions made one complete and beautiful dream! And with that, the ElRod Center in memory of Julie’s family member was born!

NextStep has grown from its initial grassroots beginning as a Macintosh computer fix-it-and-pass-it-on resource into a thriving community service organization. Starting in a garage in 1999 and founded in 2002 as “MacRenewal,” NextStep Recycling has accepted donations of hundreds of thousands of computers and other electronic devices. In the process, we have put thousands of pieces of equipment back into use in the community and recycled over 20 million pounds of electronic waste (e-waste). Our mission is to provide technology and training to children and adults who have barriers to employment and education, while protecting our environment and community from hazardous waste. Specifically, NextStep provides individuals and groups the opportunity to learn about the impact electronic waste has on our environment and to provide technology to those who do not have access. Through our ePower Our Community Partnership program, NextStep gifts computers directly to: children and adults living in foster care, persons experiencing disabilities, family members leaving domestically violent relationships, migrant worker families, under-funded schools and nonprofits. More than 5000 volunteers have donated over 280,000 hours of service refurbishing and recycling computers. 10,000 individuals have enhanced their employment marketability through experiential service learning and extensive training by our staff.