A core value at HOM, Inc., is giving back to the communities that we live and work in. It’s in our mission statement, but we also put our money where our mouth is by allowing team members to take up to four hours of paid volunteer time each week. Many of our team members use this benefit to volunteer their time and talents with organizations that are improving our communities.

One of our team members, Kayla McGhee, volunteers in her daughter’s 5th grade class. The teacher usually gives her 10-15 minutes to have a discussion with the kids about something going on in the world. On her last visit, Kayla discussed the issue of homelessness among Veterans with the students. She explained that some Veterans have a difficult time making the adjustment from military to civilian life and fall on hard times and in some cases become homeless in our communities. Kayla explained that HOM, Inc., works to end Veteran homelessness through our partnership with the City of Phoenix Housing Department to perform up-front lease-up activities for the HUD-VASH program.

The kids were very concerned that many of the formerly homeless Veterans housed by HOM, Inc. would not have family to spend the holidays with and decided that they wanted to send Christmas cards to them. After the 5th grade class colored, decorated and wrote special messages in the cards, they decided that they needed more cards and recruited additional classes at the school!

Our friends at the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, through their special initiative, Project H3 Vets, will be hand delivering all of the cards to the Veterans in the project in the coming days. The kids are VERY excited to know that they will make a difference in the lives of these men and women that served our country this holiday season.

We’re so proud of these kiddos and especially proud of our own Kayla for her passion and dedication to the work that we do and the community as a whole.