MGPdoesTrailhead Needs Your Support

Montrose Grace Place is a Non-Profit in Houston, TX focusing on LGBT Homeless youth aged 13 to 21. One night a week these youth are provided a Meal, have time to shop the Paula's Clothing Closet, participate in an activity, and have a group counseling session. One of the activities a month is #MGPdoesTrailhead where we teach Trailhead to these youth by professionals from the Salesforce ecosystem. During this time we create community and meaningful connections between youth and others in their peer groups and adults is incredible. They are able to form positive relationships that they don't form on the streets.

Back in May of 2017 we launched a GoFundMe to raise 1600.00 to buy 10 computers for Montrose Grace Place so that we could spend 1 session a month teaching Trailhead to LGBT homeless youth aged 13-21. This was a modest goal. We were able to raise $3400.00. The excess of 1800 was donated to the organization. This 1800 provided –

-  32 backpacks normally provided by parents for our homeless youth
-  110 bus pass cards for homeless youth to use to get to us, health care, or other vital social services
-  50 healthy home-cooked dinners for our hungry youth

Since June when we did our first session of #MGPdoesTrailhead we accomplished:
-  8 highly engaged volunteers form the Trailblazer Community
-  39 Badges Earned
-  9525 Trailhead Points earned
-  400+ volunteer hours completed
-  210 Youth interacted with

@Becka Miller holding one of the youth at Montrose Grace Place work on Trailhead

Beyond the stats we have had youth create such a bond that they specifically asked for a volunteer to work with them a 2nd or 3rd month in a row. Youth have gotten to know volunteers working together to solve challenges. They hear positive encouragement in addition to seeing the success messages on Trailhead.


Based on the incredible initial contributions and ongoing success, we're eager to do more to help. And we need your help!
We've set THREE awesome goals for 2018/2019:

1. Help Montrose Grace place open a second night a week. This will cost the organization $35K a year. We would like to help them raise $25K of this capital campaign.
2. Help raise $25K of their $35K goal to transform the kitchen into a commercial kitchen. As it stands Montrose Grace Place volunteers have to cook a meal for 30-35 people at home and then bring it to the kids and reheat it. This limits the amount of people who can help with creating a meal and the kinds of meals the kids get to eat.
3. Raise $5K to support the annual operating costs of #MGPdoesTrailhead. We need a few more computers, snacks for the kids, gift cards as incentives and other supplies. We have spent the last year creating a program that encourages the kids and rewards them. We want to continue bringing learning experiences to youth that do not have access to traditional learning environments.

We would love your help with these goals. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to these three goals. If you have questions please reach out to me at [email redacted] or @sluikartinfo on twitter. If you would like to see the non-profit letter or other documentation in support of this mission we will happily work to support your requests. Also if you want to contribute directly to Montrose Grace Place please email a receipt to [email redacted] so we can display the contribution to the goal of $55K on this GoFundMe.