NEK-CAP, Inc., a community action agency that provides services and stabilization to families experiencing homelessness, has received a $2.5 million grant from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez through the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund. This is the seventh year that the Day 1 Families Fund has awarded grants to organizations across the country that are leading the way to move the needle on family homelessness with the goal of ensuring that no child sleeps outside.
“On behalf of the families experiencing homelessness, who we will now be able to serve through this grant opportunity, we express our sincere gratitude to the Day 1 Families Fund,” said JeanetteCollier, executive director of NEK-CAP, Inc. “NEK-CAP, Inc. is devoted to ending family homeless- ness and ensuring no child sleeps outside.”
Family homelessness in the U.S. rose dramatically from 2022 to 2023, and families now represent more than 28 percent of the country’s homeless population, according to a 2024 report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. With its one-time Day 1 Families Fund grant, NEK-CAP, Inc. will work to reverse this national trend by serving families experiencing homelessness throughout its 16 county service area, including Atchison, Brown, Doniphan, Jackson, Jefferson, Jewell, Leavenworth, Marshall, Mitchell, Nemaha, Osborne, Pottawatomie, Republic, Riley, Smith and Washington counties.
Specifically, NEK-CAP, Inc. plans to use its funds to develop partnerships and collaborate with other entities to address short-term and long-term strategies related to ending family homelessness by employing a whole-family, strengths-based model of service delivery.
“We are looking forward to this opportunity and the ability to expand some of our services in the to include counties and families who may typically fall outside the scope of our current homeless program funding,” said Belinda Estes, director of community services at NEK-CAP, Inc.
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