Hearts with Haiti works in partnership with the St. Joseph Family to create a caring family for Haitians facing the challenges of poverty or disability and fostering skills and opportunities for those in their community. We are dedicated to providing a brighter, more sustainable future for Haiti.
St. Joseph Family is a remarkable organization that ministers to the most disadvantaged populations in Haiti—former street children, child slaves, and individuals with disabilities—and has been doing so for more than 35 years.
Children find their way to the St. Joseph Family in various ways — through placements from Haitian Social Services and other non-profit organizations who know the St. Joseph Family and who have identified a child who is at-risk or who is abandoned or orphaned; from referrals from pastors, priests, nuns; through referrals from hospitals and clinics who have working relationships with the St. Joseph Family and who have children abandoned at their facilities; from the parents and families of disabled children who cannot care for them at home. Finally, some of our children were literally abandoned on our doorstep.
While its funding partners, like Hearts with Haiti, work within the US and Canada to raise funds, the long-term strategic goals and the daily operations of the St. Joseph Family are governed by its Haitian Servant Leaders. The St. Joseph Family is committed to excellence on all levels, in terms of governance, staffing, and policies. St. Joseph Family Board Members regularly meet with funding partners to develop strategies for growth and development.
Hearts with Haiti was founded in 2001 by a group of like-minded friends and supporters that had known the wonderful mission of the St. Joseph Family for years. They recognized a need for an official nonprofit organization in the United States to support the homes of the St. Joseph Family, Haiti, and provide an avenue for tax deductible donations from other supporters throughout the United States.
Our current and former Board Members have been to Haiti hundreds of times, led thousands of volunteers from throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad, and worked together with the St. Joseph Family to establish a community of support that spans all fifty states. During this time, this grassroots enterprise has raised nearly $6 million for the St. Joseph Family and done so with very minimal administrative overhead.
Our Board and staff are comprised of a team of smart, dedicated individuals who take their volunteer and professional responsibilities very seriously. Many of us travel to Haiti one or more times a year on mission trips and personal visits with the Family, and we communicate regularly with the St. Joseph staff, through cell phone, email, Skype, IM, and Facebook. We like to stay in touch with the programs our contributions support, and we are always encouraged when we see our donors’ gifts “in action.”
This is a ministry of faith, trust, and heart. We have worked with the St. Joseph Family through times of plenty and times of scarcity – through joy and grief – and through disaster and resurrection from the rubble. We have seen the lives of hundreds of young people in Haiti shaped by this mission, and our U.S. supporters regularly report their own transformative change. While Hearts with Haiti and the St. Joseph Family are two separate entities with separate governance, staff, and practices, we share many common memories, goals, and work in partnership as a family united in a common vision – to enable Haiti’s children to be the very best they can be and inspire the lives of others through their servant leadership.
Together with the St. Joseph Family, we realize that we depend each and every day on the good will of our supporters to have the faith, courage, and conviction to support a ministry working towards sustainable change in Haiti. Today we need your support more than ever as we seek to continue to build and expand the facilities that rose from the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, and to keep the SJF going strong and continuing to expand its service to the community for years to come.
27 Horne Street
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 758-8085
info@heartswithhaiti.org
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