Note: This message was originally sent on March 29, 2022
Imagine if you had no home to call your own—you’d moved around with your kids from shelters and friends’ couches or even out on the streets. Where would you go?
Now imagine being a Gonzaga student, faculty or staff member wanting to make an immediate and tangible difference in other people’s lives through service. What would you do?
Celebrating its grand opening on Wednesday (3/30) is the place where 73 formerly homeless families can find their “forever home,” and Gonzaga students, faculty and staff can learn and serve to help break the cycles of poverty: Gonzaga Family Haven. Partnering with Gonzaga Prep, St. Al’s Parish, and Catholic Charities, the Gonzaga family is growing. These new members of the Gonzaga family and Logan neighborhood will be the beneficiaries of our faculty, staff, and students’ commitment to service through several programs and initiatives—especially the Center for Community Engagement’s Opportunity NorthEast (ONE) initiative. This arrangement is truly symbiotic, in that the Gonzaga Family Haven will be a place with the resources and opportunities to help break the cycles of poverty for residents while also providing Gonzaga students with the chance to learn, mentor, and gain the knowledge, skills and inspiration to replicate the impact of the Haven in communities around the world.
On the same day, the annual Mozilo Lecture in the School of Business Administration is bringing together a panel of guest speakers to discuss critical issues of housing affordability—a major factor impacting families at the Haven. Made possible by the Mozilo and Larsen families, this event is free and open to the public, and is a direct example of Gonzaga’s commitment to community impact through academic pursuits.
At the center—family. The families living at the Haven, the families making it possible for the University to pursue its Jesuit mission of education in service of the common good, and the friends who become family through Gonzaga—you are the driving force behind it all. Thank you for being a member of the Gonzaga family and for helping to welcome our newest neighbors.