Extend A Hand Up by December 31, 2026
Please consider a generous gift to support even more single moms, like Johanna, in our community.
Read Johanna’s story below.
YOU can be the reason they have hope for a different future.
Thank you...SO MUCH!!
Your gift to Fellowship Housing may be used in a number of ways to empower single moms...
$25,000 GIFT
Covers all costs for a single mom and her children for one full year, which includes housing, one-on-one mentoring, financial education, counseling, career training, debt reduction matching, employment coaching and life skills training.
$15,000 GIFT
Provides safe housing for a single mom and her children for one year.
$10,000 GIFT
Provides (2) one-year $5000 college scholarships to Fellowship Housing high school graduates.
$5,000 GIFT
Provides weekly one-on-one case management for one year.
$2,500 GIFT
Provides scholarships for Fellowship Housing children to participate in extracurricular activities or childcare assistance options over the summer.
$1,200 GIFT (Just $100 per month)
Provides a year of counseling for a mom.
$600 GIFT (Just $50 per month)
Helps a mom to decrease debt through our debt-matching program, which matches up to $500 per month.
$365 GIFT (Just $1 per day)
Provides personal and educational resources for moms and their children, including warm clothes, tutoring, school supplies and personal care items.
$120 GIFT
Helps provide intensive financial education.
Johanna’s Story
Raising two beautiful daughters together, Johanna thought she’d found the person to spend the rest of her life with. But life took a drastic turn, and she found herself making the hardest decision of her life: leaving an unsafe relationship to protect her children. With only a bag of clothes and a few toiletries between them, she walked into a domestic violence shelter, uncertain of what would come next.
Over the following year, Johanna and her girls moved through two more temporary shelters. Each place met an immediate need, but none of them could be home for long. Underneath it all, Johanna was carrying a weight most of us can’t imagine — the exhaustion of holding everything together alone. Without a stable place to call home, it was nearly impossible to plan, save, or feel safe, no matter how hard she tried.
As one temporary home after another ran out, Johanna knew survival mode wasn’t enough anymore. She was ready for a different kind of help — to build something for her family that would last. That’s when her shelter advocate told her about Fellowship Housing.
No little girl grows up dreaming of being a single mom. The events that bring them to this reality are challenging and complicated to say the least. And yet, each of the single moms who become a part of Fellowship Housing is filled with determination and courage. They all desire the same thing – to build a better life, a better legacy for their children. They simply need someone to come alongside them and extend A Hand Up.
Would you consider a generous gift to our year-end campaign, A Hand Up? Now several years into expansion, Fellowship Housing has gone from serving 24 families at a time to 60 throughout Cook, DuPage, Kane and McHenry Counties. But there are still single moms and their children in our community who need A Hand Up so they can move from crisis to long-term stability.
I invite you to be part of the vision God has laid before us: walking alongside 80 families at a time, so more moms like Johanna get the chance to build something lasting for their children.
After connecting with Fellowship Housing, Johanna and her two daughters moved into their new apartment. Her goals were simple, but life-changing: pay off debt, save toward a home of her own, and finally feel safe. “When we were finally settled in our place, I felt this overwhelming feeling of peace,” Johanna said. “For the first time in years, I was sleeping through the night because I finally felt safe in my home.”
Johanna came to Fellowship Housing with under $100 in savings and thousands of dollars in debt. Through budgeting classes, one-on-one mentoring, and steady encouragement, she began to see what was possible when someone believed in
her and gave her the tools to succeed.
Today, Johanna is completely debt-free. She’s raised her credit score by 90 points and has grown her savings to more than $45,000. And in September, she closed on her very own Habitat for Humanity home. “I am no longer fearful of the future,” Johanna said. “I have the tools I need to succeed in life, and I’ve become a better mother because of it.”