Tee It Up to Help Us Prevent Homelessness Dear Friends, I hope it has been a wonderful summer for you.  With schools starting, we have been busy this month getting backpacks and school supplies distributed to the children in our programs. As … Read More

A Year of Transition for Bridges Dear Friends, Bridges’ fiscal year 2023 just ended, and July has been a busy month of reports, reflection, and looking ahead. FY23 was a transition year for Bridges. We transitioned from pandemic protocols to … Read More

Housing Costs Continue to Destabilize Families Dear Friends, Housing costs are an inescapable factor in our organizational mission and daily work. Housing is the biggest expense in most peoples’ budgets, so when housing gets more expensive, more families have trouble … Read More

Latest Community Indicators Highlight Housing Dear Friends, The Association of Community Services recently published its annual Self-Sufficiency Indicators report, which is always an excellent source of data about the economic stability of Howard County residents. The report, available here, confirms the … Read More

Achieving Affordable Housing Dear Friends, This month, I am happy to share the good news of the purchase of our 50th rental home for our Alliance Program. This program provides below market-rate rental housing to families in Howard County. Why … Read More

Dear Friends, The pandemic has dictated many changes to our Chili & Challenge event over the past two years, but once again, for this year’s event (Oct. 10) we received abundant support from volunteers, congregations, individual donors, and sponsors. Their contributions made the event a tremendous success. Thank you … Read More

A Memorable Year  Every year is memorable in some way. Personal or professional milestones mark our days, months, and years. At Bridges, like every other nonprofit, Fiscal Year 2021 brought many changes to our delivery of services in the community. There is much to celebrate, but much work left … Read More

Bridges has provided Rapid Rehousing services over the past three years, and we consider it to be a core competency of our organization. The goal with Rapid Rehousing is to move a client into housing within 30-45 days. The work involves extensive case management … Read More

The Housing Opportunities Task Force is working to identify Howard County’s housing affordability issues and make recommendations to address them. This is your opportunity to help shape the future of housing in Howard! The task force asks that you participate … Read More

This summer, Bridges was awarded critical COVID-19 operating relief funding. This funding, in addition to the client assistance relief funding we’ve received since COVID-19 began, allows Bridges to continue to serve the most vulnerable in our community during these unprecedented … Read More

I don’t consider myself a very creative person, but for the past six months, I have had to exercise my creative muscle professionally and personally almost daily. That’s one small benefit of the pandemic: it is forcing many of us … Read More

Meet Russ Snyder, one of Bridges’ truly selfless and amazing volunteers. Russ has generously donated his time, energy, and solid judgment to effectively advocate for affordable housing in Howard County as a member of our Board of Directors since 2012. For Russ, making a difference in his community is more than just volunteering, it is a calling … Read More

Even in the best of times, moving forward is often difficult for many of Bridges’ clients. Facing the challenges of low wages, scarce affordable housing, housing discrimination, and many other barriers are formidable. No one can surmount all of these obstacles alone. I’m not just talking about our clients, though. Everyone … Read More

All of us have been impacted by COVID-19. But many low- to moderate-income households face particularly extreme hardships as they struggle to make ends meet. Many clients tell us that food insecurity is their most pressing challenge. Bridges’ program staff continues to keep a laser focus on providing information about community resources (food banks and pop-up pantries, ethnic food warehouses, etc.) as … Read More

We are looking for an enthusiastic and organized Volunteer Coordinator with strong communication skills to help create a robust volunteer program. Bridges is partnering with Volunteer Maryland and AmeriCorps to fill this exciting 11-month, full-time position. The goal is to … Read More

As we embark on a new fiscal year, we would like to thank the Howard County Department of Housing & Community Development, Howard County Department of Community Resources, United Way of Central Maryland, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and Community Foundation … Read More

The pandemic has affected at least one-quarter of Bridges’ current clients through layoffs, cuts in job hours, or inability to work due to an absence of childcare. In addition to the generous individuals who gave to our COVID-19 Community Appeal, grantors and organizations have provided crucial COVID-19 relief to … Read More

Recent events have highlighted racist practices within the criminal justice system that need to change. Housing discrimination for people of color has also been a reality for hundreds of years. Laws have often been on the wrong side, offering little to no … Read More