Organized by Wise Women Gathering Place, Inc.
Safe Place Parking Fundraiser
Thank you checking out our Safe Place Parking Program Fundraiser!
Please donate! You can make a difference by donating today to Wise Women Gathering Place, every dollar helps!
Wise Women Gathering Place started the safe parking program in June 2020 for people without homes that sleep in their vehicle. We provide the lot for folks to park safely and undisturbed from 6pm to 8am. Staff are available nightly to register parkers and provide safety, support, access and advocacy to stable housing, and distribute donations and other resources. Staff are available again each morning to help parkers where needed as they leave for the day.
Unfortunately, we had to suspend the safe parking program this July (2024) because our insurance company stopped covering the lot. The 45 vehicles that used our lot each night no longer had a place to safely park through the night. The people in these vehicles come from all walks: Native American and non-native, singles, couples, parents with children, extended families, people with and without jobs, victims fleeing abuse, the list goes on. The parkers and other community agencies they worked with were distraught over the suspension, sharing with us the added hardships parkers encountered without the program.
While having a safe place to sleep every night is important, we are coming up on cold winter nights. We continue to serve around 30 vehicles a night during the coldest Green Bay Wisconsin nights. Imagine waking every few hours to run your car to get warm, staying awake long enough to ensure you don’t run out of gas or risk carbon monoxide poisoning. The impact of poor sleep night after night contributes to degraded decision-making, brain functioning, and emotional regulation. It impairs one’s ability to navigate people and programs in seeking resources and stability.
Safe Place Parking loans battery banks to parkers for electric blankets to keep warm in place of running their vehicles throughout the night. Parkers have access to donations from the community for keeping warm. A full night’s sleep gives them the vital benefit of a clear mind, motivation, and hope.
We are fundraising a month of operating the Safe Place Parking program. The months of searching for insurance took a dire toll on our funding. We are once again insured, but in essence, we are starting over in funding the program. It costs $12,500 a month to operate the program. This covers staff to operate the program, portable sanitation facilities, electricity to the lot, refuse removal, and insurance. Please donate, every dollar helps!
Wise Women Gathering Place is a Native American nonprofit that promotes Peace, Respect, and Belonging through skill building, sharing of resources and caring community support. Our services support people harmed by domestic violence, sexual assault and other trauma. WWGP provides safety, emergency shelter/housing, healing, connections to other resources, tools, and skill building for people of all backgrounds and lifestyles in Wisconsin's greater Green Bay community and surrounding Native Nations.
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