16th Annual First Step Back Home Christmas Wonderland. This year we are again having a Drive Thru  style party to serve NEW families from St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren Counties ONLY. If you attended in the past you will be placed on a “Pending List” until we see if slots may be available.  We will only be providing gifts to children 15 years and younger.

You must reserve a slot for your immediate household, to be able to participate. EACH family must sign-up separately, even if you are riding together. (EX. 2 households in one car but each household has their own registration number). You MUST include your address when you sign up.

Confirmation emails  with your unique registration number are REQUIRED, and will be sent to the email address provided after Nov. 18, based on availability. Names on the Pending List will be addressed at that time.

There is no access to the building. Everyone stays in their cars. Only one person from a family unit is required to come.  No need for everyone to show up.  Check FSBH website, firststepbackhome.net or Facebook page, for updates due to weather or other circumstances.

Items will be distributed based on donations received.

Please contact me if you have a problem or question about siging up. braychris@msn.com

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This is a family we’ve been helping over the past few weeks.  Trying to help them restore some normalcy into their lives with electricity, and then a well to work so they can have running water for toilets, showers and just washing hands. Two years without those essentials has taken its toll. You can help . Click the donate button on this page to our PayPal site and mark in notes that it’s for family with fire.

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Poverty Facts in Our Region

• The population of St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren Counties is 500,000 (2020).
• The number of people living below the poverty level of $21,000 is 15% or 75,000 in these three counties.
• The minimum wage, even after minimum wage increase, is equal to the poverty level income of $10/hr.
• A living wage for 1 adult is $13.72/hour. Unskilled, low-educated workers around here are lucky to make $9/hr. which is $10,000 less than a yearly living wage. (Resource – Missouri Living Wage Calculator)
• The definition of a living wage is the amount of income it takes to provide basic necessities for a person or family, which is food, clothes, housing, transportation, taxes, insurance and more. (Resource- State of Missouri definition)
• If you have kids it takes a big jump from there. The living wage for 1 adult and 1 child is $28.65/hr.; 1 adult and 2 kids is $34.97/hr. Obviously this is impossible for people to reach making a minimum wage.
• Most of our clients are single or a family with multiple children.
• In 2020, the Coordinated Entry central resource and data service for our region received 10,000 calls for help from the poor which are people making at or less than a living wage or homeless. This is the organization that sends us referrals on a daily basis.
• The State of Missouri has about the same averages. There are 6,126,452 people in our state, so 15% of that means there are more than 900,000 poor people in Missouri.
• This is not a good report for the richest nation in the world. We need more people and funding to help those in marginalized sectors have a decent life, by helping them receive the basic necessities of life here in the U.S.

THIS is the serious situation that First Step Back Home (FSBH) strives to address for the homeless and near-homeless in our region. FSBH does its absolute best, within its financial means, to help everyone who can prove that they are honestly trying to help themselves. We give ourselves to homelessness prevention and crisis intervention.

Paul and Lana Kruse, Founders of First Step Back Home, Inc.

FSBH is unique… key to the program’s good success rate is that assistance is provided only to those who are capable of, and agree in advance to, actively seeking self-supporting status.

Eligibility criteria and screening serve to eliminate active addicts, con artists, those who have serious physical or mental handicaps that would prevent them from finding work in the near term, and those not honestly interested in seeking work at all.

FSBH tracks the status of those to who help has been provided, and 50% of those served by FSBH in its 16 years have achieved self-supporting lifestyles. Please browse tabs at the top of this page to learn more about FSBH…our history, successes, awards, generous sponsors, how we can help others, eligibility criteria, and how to apply. And please consider helping us support the homeless and near-homeless, with your prayers, time and talent, and financial donations.

We rely solely on individual, foundation, corporation, and church contributions. We do not receive government funding of any kind, the only support we get is from you. Please help us help others in Missouri to become self-supporting as most of us are.