Love of the Black Hills

Thrive & rise: rise: is a ministry that allows the participants from our connection center seeking help with furniture needs to earn furniture. They join a team of volunteers who refurbish donated furniture as well as updating and repurposing decor items. the inventory consists of items that were either too large or simply inpractical for our clients' use. This furniture and dcor are being refurbished and make into items that are sold in our social enterprise. In 2023, 93 participants earned new furniture for their home. Our volunteers served over 7,210 hours in this ministry.life Inc: life Inc is a safe, supportive place for people to learn, grow and develop in order to set a new course for their life. Life Inc uses classes and mentoring to help people. Area churches provide a free meal. Free childcare programming is provided for over 200 children ages 0-12. In 2023, there were 255 adults taking part in classes. Volunteers provided 2000 hours of their time. Participants earned $12,780 in gas vouchers, haircuts, and rise and thrive vouchers. We offered life Inc quarterly at 5 different church campuses, providing twenty-one different course offerings in areas such as finances, patenting, marriage, addiction, employment, health, bible, and life skills.

Life Inc: life Inc is a safe, supportive place for people to learn, grow and develop in order to set a new course for their life. Life Inc uses classes and mentoring to help people. Area churches provide a free meal. Free childcare programming is provided for over 200 children ages 0-12. In 2023, there were 255 adults taking part in classes. Volunteers provided 2000 hours of their time. Participants earned $190 in gas vouchers and groceries. We offered life Inc quarterly at 5 different church campuses, providing twenty-one different course offerings in areas such as finances, patenting, marriage, addiction, employment, health, bible, and life skills.

Love Inc connection center: the Love Inc connection center (formerly called the clearinghouse) processes people's calls for help. First, phone volunteers take time to listen, encourage, pray for and problem solve with each caller. Next, people are connected with church volunteers and resources to help with furniture, bedding, and kitchen items. the total value of items given was $97,736. Volunteers served 3,962 hours helping in these programs.

the sturgis location, held life Inc in which 44 adults and 23 children attended classes. Volunteers provided 67 hours of their time. They also served families through the clothe-a-kid for school program giving 32 children new clothing for school. 29 volunteers served 249 hours. Our changed diaper ministry is impacting moms by hleping them with diapers for their children. Over 170 packs of diapers were given out in 2023.

Clothe-a-kid for school: has changed this year as we sought to have a more intimate relationship with our families. We shifted from taking parents shopping once a year to having families being able to earn quarterly vouchers. This became part of the life Inc incentive program. Seventy families were helped with clothing for 170 children with a cost of $14,000. There were seven churches that participated and raised over $8,858 for this program. Shopping volunteers served 20 hours helping families pick out clothing.