Message from Barbara Hayes, Chief Executive Officer

Dear Friends,

During 2009, our organization got a chance to prove that it could ramp up its services to prevent homelessness at a time of great trial for the working poor of Westchester and New York City.

Our breakthrough started in the late fall of 2008, when we talked to The New York Community Trust about a grant to expand our program in the city. Early in 2009, we received a contribution of $1 million from the Trust and Goldman Sachs Gives to more than double the number of clients served by our city program in the 12 months ending February 28, 2010. As expected, this large grant also had a positive effect on the funding for the Westchester program.

In the city, our program exceeded its goals for the contract period two months ahead of time, in December 2009. In the past year it provided financial assistance and counseling to 717 households (1,733 people), compared to 334 households (760 people) in 2008.

Let’s look at The Bridge Fund overall. In 2009, the Westchester and New York City programs utilized $1,484,117 of their own funds for financial assistance to clients and networked with other agencies to access an additional $1,224,649 for our loan and grant packages. Clients contributed $1,088,614 towards resolving their housing problems. In total, we mobilized $3,797,380 to stabilize 1,029 households (2,431 people) in their housing.

Two points stand out: for the first time the number of households helped by The Bridge Fund exceeded 1,000. Also, the total number of people assisted (2,431) included 962 children. We cannot adequately stress the critical, positive effect that The Bridge Fund has on the welfare of children in our communities. The Bridge Fund began 2010 with encouraging news. Key funding from The New York Community Trust, The Mark and Anla Cheng Kingdon Foundation and Goldman Sachs Gives has been renewed and expanded. Our staff is going all out to help our clients achieve housing stability.

If contributions from our long-standing supporters remain strong, and we continue to add new funders, The Bridge Fund will have an even greater impact on homelessness prevention again this year.

Sincerely,

Barbara Hayes Chief Executive Officer