Mission Statement
GRACE is the central part to Alachua County's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. GRACE is dually funded by the City of Gainesville and Alachua County and works to meet the needs of homeless and hungry individuals and families in this area. Through community-wide strategies, collaboration, and direct service, we help individuals and families move toward self-sufficiency, prevent homelessness and hunger among persons at risk, and develop programs to address community needs and gaps in the Continuum of Care. The Coalition strives to accomplish these goals by coordinating services among non-profit and governmental agencies, securing and distributing funds for homeless programs, collecting data and reporting conditions, and advocating on behalf of the homeless and hungry.
Description
Ten years ago, a group of us got together to re-think how we provided homeless services in Alachua County. Community leaders, advocates, volunteers, and homeless and formerly homeless people spent six months working on the issue. GRACE Marketplace emerged from these discussions. GRACE brings together the best social service and health care agencies in our community into a one-stop resource center to strengthen the safety net for our friends and neighbors.
GRACE is a one-stop assistance center for people without housing, bringing together key social service agencies in one location to make it easier for people in our community to get the help they need. We provide emergency shelter (indoors) and an outdoor shelter pavilion for men and women. We also provide meals, day services, laundry, storage, a computer lab, a clothing closet, case management, AA/NA meetings, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and, most of all, a place people can call home.
For more information, or to enroll as a general volunteer, visit our website at gracemarketplace.org/volunteer.
