Mission Moments – LUM Good Samaritan Fund

Real-Life “Shoes” – Three Families in Crisis

The LUM Good Samaritan Fund is a financial assistance program that provides a strong and reliable safety net to our community’s families and children. This financial assistance is paid to a third party for rent, utilities, or prescription medication. Here are some other real-life, local “shoes” you’re invited to imagine yourself in:

• You are a SINGLE DAD caring for CHILDREN with DISABILITIES. You can’t return to work for several weeks until your children are approved to receive the supportive services they need. You need help with an overdue heating bill.
• You are a SINGLE MOTHER of three, needing aid to move out of a LEAD-contaminated apartment and into a clean and safe living situation.
• You are a YOUNG ADULT recovering from BRAIN SURGERY. You are determined to return to work again someday, but for now you have no income. It’s the onset of winter, and you cannot afford to pay your heating bill.

Again, these are NOT made-up scenarios. There are precious local people in these precarious situations that have come through our door, seeking financial assistance from the LUM Good Samaritan Fund. Because of empathetic donors such as YOU, LUM has been able to give financial assistance – and with it, emotional support and hope – thousands of times. Thank you.

In 50 years of serving low-income households in Greater Lafayette, LUM has learned that even modest financial assistance can have a dramatic, positive impact on families.

In the past 10 years, LUM has distributed more than $1.2 million in emergency financial assistance to 5,030 families in 21,248 separate client visits. Any given client could receive a maximum of $200 each year. In the past decade, the average client only visited three times. Clearly, the LUM Good Samaritan Fund is not creating financial dependence on LUM but instead is giving an empowering hand of hope to people in the midst of their own financial crises. The impact is life-altering.

Would you please consider giving $50, $100, $250, $500, or $1,000 to the LUM Good Samaritan Fund, to ensure that LUM can continue to offer this critical social safety net to our neighbors in need?