KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — This week, Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries (KGM) announced that they have met their goal of rebuilding the Women and Children’s Shelter downtown.
According to the organization, demolition of the old structure is complete, and placement of the steel girders in the new building is underway. When finished this October, homeless women and children will be able to utilize the facility and its support services.
Construction of the new Women and Children’s Shelter in downtown Kalamazoo is underway. (Photo courtesy of Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries).
Pastor Michael Brown spoke with WKZO on these developments in an interview on Tuesday.
“When it’s done, it’ll have an additional 202 beds to our Women and Children’s portion of the mission,” Pastor Brown said. “It’ll be connected right to what you have there right now, so it’ll function as all one facility. But there will be rooms inside where children can do their homework, play games, they can do some of the things you do when you have your own home. One of the the things we try to do is ensure the children that come through our ministry are not affected too traumatically, there’s enough trauma with being homeless. We want to make sure that they look back on this experience and have fond memories of it.”
He added that the facility doesn’t want the challenges of being homeless to impact their studies and education.
Other features will include private rooms for taking information and a dedicated chapel. In total, the facility will encompass a 45,000 square-foot radius.
The fundraising campaign was originally planned for 2020, but those events had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the committee members for Kingdom Focus 2020, along with KGM board members, reached out directly to donors for support.
“It kind of took the wind out of us for a moment when we found out we had to cancel the Kingdom Focus 2020 event that was gonna feature Dr. Tony Evans out of Dallas Texas, and we were looking forward to it,” Pastor Brown said. “We had sponsors on board that were willing to foot the cost of it and donate to the bottom line for this project. Our board and some of our team got together with our donors, and they told us to keep the money and put it to this facility.”
Another part of that success was thanks to a matching gift through the Bill and Julia VanDomelen Foundation. The foundation extended the 2020 deadline for matching $575,000.
That goal has been met, and the organization raised $1.15 million dollars to fully fund the construction of the shelter.
The organization says that the final step will involve outfitting the building with new furnishings, décor, and equipment.
Donors interested in contributing a “room” or other pieces can go to the official KGM website for more information.
To hear the full interview with Pastor Brown, click here.
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