December,  2011

Dear Supporters of Fresh Start’s Mission:

The participants, volunteers, staff and management of Fresh Start thank you for your generosity.  We are especially pleased by the response over the years to our semi-annual appeals.

Today, we are more dependent than ever on your generous financial support. The purchasing power of our nation’s workers continues to decline, the U.S. poverty rate is at its highest level since 1993, our social safety net is in jeopardy, and homelessness continues to increase.  The rationality once attributable to our economic system, which at one time responded to social needs, has escaped us. Inequality has ascended to levels unheard of for U.S. society.

Sadly, the culmination of our national tragedy is nowhere in sight. As a result each week at Fresh Start we add at least nine additional participants to our rolls. Moreover, due to an inadequate health system and continuing cuts in social services, approximately one-half of Fresh Start’s new enrollees are mentally ill.

Donations from supporters like you help Fresh Start sustain many of our fellow Americans who find themselves in dire need: those who suffer the ravages of declining earnings, of lost jobs, of foreclosed homes, of unaffordable rental units, of missing retirement funds, of the inability to purchase medications, of being forgotten after serving their country, of being mentally ill and left to falter on our streets.

Today, an American family will lose their home, if lucky they will take refuge in a shelter, but not likely. Most likely they will huddle under a bridge or under bushes in a park or sleep in their car, or gain a few hours respite in a cardboard-laden recycling dumpster, or sleep side by side on the floor of a friend’s apartment.  Yet, the parents will not really sleep; they will lie awake and wonder how to care for their children.  Fresh Start is grateful to its donors and volunteers for doing whatever possible to lighten the burden of those parents.

In accordance with its mission, Fresh Start strives to empower and serve the homeless and sheltered poor, whether working, unemployed, underemployed or uncounted. This is accomplished by providing a respite and service center in Walnut Creek, a homelessness prevention program, non-shelter amelioration, financial assistance, and a human rights advocacy project.

Fresh Start is a non-profit organization with a proven record over the past fourteen years.  Of course, it isn’t owned by a multinational corporate empire, and it doesn’t have any substantial corporate donors.  Most of our funding comes from people like you who believe in the mission of Fresh Start.

Fresh Start operates with a virtually all-volunteer staff, commencing with its uncompensated Executive Director.  Regardless, however, our budget is stretched. Accordingly, if your situation allows, Fresh Start welcomes your tax-deductible contribution. In this time of fundamental economic upheaval, please help us help those in dire need.  Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Sincerely yours,

William M. Lunghi