Looking Ahead to What 2017 Will Bring

At Heightened Hearts, we have spent quite a bit of time thinking about how we can do more in 2017. The past year saw many successful initiatives, including food baskets, school supply baskets, weatherization projects, and a growing number of global partnerships. We were able to help open a kindergarten, provide scholarship assistance, and assist children and elderlies with needed medical care. We know that in 2017 that we need to expand further. Here are some of the upcoming projects that we are most excited about for this coming year!

JANUARY MISSION TRIP

The earliest service event we have planned for the upcoming year is a mission trip in mid-January to the Ukraine. Our founder and several volunteers will be traveling to the country to visit the site of our planned Global Relief Center, to deliver supplies to a local orphanage, to assess the progress of several weatherization projects, and provide other services and supplies to needy families in the area. We need volunteers to travel with us during this mission – it is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the needs of this area and see first-hand the impact of your support and contributions!

Continued Food and Supply Basket Programs

No matter our best efforts, the issues of nutrition and education still permeate the communities that we serve. It has been an enormous blessing to those we help to provide regularly food and supply baskets, especially around the holidays and other events. The baskets require an enormous amount of resources to put together – funds to purchase the baskets and supplies; time to purchase items, assemble the baskets, and deliver them to our families. Despite these requirements, we have seen firsthand how helpful and appreciated the baskets are, and we hope to continue offering them to even more families this year.

Weatherization Projects

As we’ve come to understand increasingly more about the families that we are helping, we’ve learned some deeply troubling things about the condition of the homes they are living in. We have seen families living without heat, without running water. We’ve seen crumbling roofs, walls, and foundations. For our families, putting food on the table is enough of a struggle – fixing the condition of their home will simply not happen given their resources. Our organization has recognized the need to provide professional assistance in these efforts. We’ve identified several “high-risk” families for the upcoming year, and hope to raise the funds needed to complete these home repairs over the next few months.

Global Relief Center Project

One of our most exciting initiatives for the year, our Global Relief Center project, is making additional progress. In this project, we are identifying communities with a variety of unmet needs (such as the area we will be traveling to in the Ukraine); once identified, our organization will start advocacy efforts to locate available land and supplies to start our global relief center effort. At our location in the Ukraine, we have successfully acquired several acres of land. Our next steps are to continue our fundraising efforts to build “seed” money needed to break ground on this project. Once completed, a Global Relief Center will provide an innovative setting for local families in need to come together to receive help for multiple problems, from food and supplies to spiritual guidance and education. It is truly one of the most exciting efforts we have underway!

Ways You Can Help

For us to be successful in meeting these goals for the upcoming year, we need the help of our supporters in any fashion they can manage. Although monetary donations are one of the most effective ways that we can meet our goals, supply donations are also greatly needed. If you are unable to donate, consider your ability to help in other ways. We are always looking for additional volunteers to help us with marketing, purchasing, assembling, and delivering supplies. We know that our volunteers are extremely busy people, and we are so thankful they have chosen to make a difference by assisting our organization.

As we say good-bye to 2016 and welcome the new year with open arms, those of us at Heightened Hearts are growing more hopeful by the day. We know that with our dedication to our mission – and the help of supporters like you – that we are bound to influence real change in the lives of families here in Miami and across the globe.