To provide Lily's House, the only homeless shelter in Bates County, with a vehicle.

Bates County's drug addiction and poverty rates are some of the highest in Missouri. Lily's House was created because there are no other shelters in Bates County. It provides services to women who have children and are struggling to free themselves from addiction, abuse and abandonment. When a woman begins the process of recovery from addiction, therapy constitutes 10% of her week. Her battles with addiction are often lost during the other 90% of the time and Lily's House stands in that gap.

The trouble is that Lily's House needs a vehicle. To help these families they need to get to a lot of places: school, work, court, doctors, counselors, tutors - and they need a way to get there. The shelter can provide volunteer drivers - but they need a vehicle to do it in! Without a vehicle, the women and children won't be able to access the services that will help better their lives. My cause focuses on this need and would provide a vehicle to Lily's House so it can help the poor and homeless.

Newly formed, Lily's House is still working to gather all of the resources necessary to give women the support necessary during their stay. One of the most important aspects of the shelter is that helping these women get to appointments with doctors, counselors, and court appointments. To do so, Lily's House needs a vehicle.

I want to give Lily's House this grant money so they can purchase a vehicle, title it, and insure it for a year. Lily's House is a brand new shelter, and the only in our County. They just don't have the funds to buy the car themselves, and they need it for the shelter to function. This vehicle will directly impact the unmet need of assisting women battling addiction in Bates County by helping Lily's House support them in this battle.

Homeless Women and their families have no other avenue for support while overcoming addiction in Bates County other than Lily's House. The 12 to 18 month program is designed to stabilize these families and break generational cycles of abuse in our area. By supporting Lily's House with this grant, State Farm will be directly interceding on behalf of these families, coming alongside them and supporting them as they rebuild their lives from the ground up. As the children who stay at Lily's House grow and mature they will pour into the community, rather than take away from it.

Further, by having dedicated, reliable transportation for the women in our shelter, they will be able to seek employment and save funds for a vehicle of their own. Not only will this allow our residents to become productive members of the community, it will propel them into a stable future.