HOST Post (Vol 2 No 2)

Check out our latest HOST happenings!

Author

Libby Stephens
March 05, 2024

Table of Contents

HOST Appreciation Event

Our lovely hosts at our recent appreciation event.

On February 12, HOST gathered our hosts for an evening to express our appreciation for their dedication to the students we serve. It was a night filled with creativity, connections, and community.

To kick off the festivities, Julie Sherk, a professor from the NCSU Horticultural Science Department, led the hosts in an activity to craft floral arrangements they took home at the end of the event. Following the activity, we shared dinner. It was a chance for our hosts to connect and share stories, strengthening the foundation of our HOST family.

We ended the evening with an amazing dessert bar where hosts were joined by HOST board members, funding partners, donors, and supporters. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Design for Joy and Crazy Combs Salon for sponsoring the dinner, and to Mary Horton Holmes, a realtor with The Sheri Hagerty Group at Hodge & Kittrell Sotheby’s International Realty, and Dana Hollywood, one of our hosts, for treating us to an array of sweet delights.

This event reminds us once again of the incredible community that surrounds us and the profound impact our hosts make in the lives of the students we serve. Their dedication, kindness, and generosity inspire us, fueling our mission to support students.

HOST Happenings

HOST is honored to be selected to receive a grant through the Triangle Community Foundation’s Responsive Grantmaking program. We will use this capacity-building grant to fund our first-ever strategic planning process. Stan Holt from Partners for Impact will be leading the HOST board and staff to develop a plan to continue the growth of the organization and improve our capacity to serve students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.

Thank you: Mary Horton Holmes


HOST wants to personally thank Mary Holmes, a realtor with The Sheri Hagerty Group at Hodge & Kittrell Sotheby’s International Realty, for helping raise awareness about our organization and student homelessness. Below, you can find the video HOST and Mary created to teach the public about HOST and how to help the students within our program. Thank you so much, Mary!

HOST in the News

We are constantly thinking of creative ways and platforms in bringing awareness to student homelessness and HOST. Check out the links to our features below:

WRAL Segments

Board Member Highlight

Sarah’s role within NC State University:

I work with TRIO Collegiate Programs at North Carolina State University. In this role, I have spent the past 12 years ensuring the students we serve have access to food, housing, medical care, and other “non-academic” resources/services necessary for academic and career success.

Why did you want to be involved in starting HOST?

Having worked with homeless and housing-insecure college students at NC State, it was extremely important to me that NC State create an infrastructure to address the needs of under-resourced students especially those without safe and stable housing accessible to campus. The university offered many more resources for hunger and food insecurity than housing.

What motivates you to remain involved in HOST?

Having had personal experiences with housing insecurity when I was a college student, I know too well the sacrifices some students have to make to earn their college degree and housing should not be one of those sacrifices. Moreover, rates of college student housing insecurity and homelessness are on the rise, and HOST is needed more than ever. HOST also provides a level of community support to the students served that no other college student housing resource/service does by welcoming homeless college students into a home.

Interested in supporting HOST with your time and talent?

We are seeking Board members with expertise in human resources, communications, development/fundraising, and/or finance. If you'd like to learn more about our dynamic board, contact Mary Haskett at [email protected].

 

Get Involved with HOST

Volunteer to become a host to a student experiencing homelessness, serve on our Advisory Council, or host a fundraising event!

Pass the word about HOST to your relatives, neighbors, work associates, and friends who may be open to hosting students in our community.

Make a donation to HOST or contribute items to our Welcome Kits. You can make a tax-free contribution via our website at: https://www.hostnc.org/donate

Share information about HOST with your company, place of worship, club, or corporate foundation and ask them to consider a donation to HOST.

More Information

For more information, contact Libby Stephens, HOST Program Coordinator, at [email protected].

Or visit our website at: https://www.hostnc.org/.