{"id":26857,"date":"2017-12-12T09:04:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T14:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=26857"},"modified":"2017-12-12T09:04:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T14:04:13","slug":"good-samaritan-and-bridge-of-hope-complete-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=26857","title":{"rendered":"Good Samaritan and Bridge of Hope complete merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Two established non-profits that serve the homeless population of Chester and Lancaster Counties \u2013 Good Samaritan Shelter and Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties \u2013 announce the official merger that uniquely positions the organizations to provide a full range of services to address homelessness.<\/p>\n

The new organization has been re-named Good Samaritan Services to reflect the progressive range of services available to homeless men, women and children in the two counties \u2013 from emergency shelter to rapid re-housing and permanent housing.\u00a0 \u00a0Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties is formally a \u201cprogram site\u201d under the umbrella of Good Samaritan Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis merger has been a long time coming, with more than a year of discussions, planning and praying,\u201d said Nate Hoffer, Executive Director of Good Samaritan Services.\u00a0 \u201cTwo powerful, impactful ministries that have been operating for many years alongside of each other have now come together for good; for the good of the Chester County and Lancaster County communities and for the good of the clients that we serve.<\/p>\n

In combining forces, the new Good Samaritan Services will serve close to 200 men, women and children every day in shelter and housing programs.\u00a0 In addition to emergency shelter, transitional housing and long-term affordable housing, the organization will provide rental assistance, financial stabilization, employment services, mentoring, parenting classes and family-building services.<\/p>\n

All four office locations will remain open: two in Chester County \u2013 Phoenixville and Coatesville; and two in Lancaster County \u2013 the City of Lancaster and Ephrata.\u00a0 In addition, all Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester County staff will remain, joining together with Good Samaritan Services staff.<\/p>\n

Good Samaritan Services began as Good Samaritan Shelter in 1999 through a collaborative effort of several Phoenixville area churches and other community supporters.\u00a0 Together, they sought a compassionate response to the needs of people experiencing homelessness.\u00a0 Good Samaritan now owns eight properties in Chester and Lancaster Counties, helping hundreds of men, women and children each year.<\/p>\n

Established 30 years ago, Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties was borne from a group of churches united by a deep sense of Christ\u2019s call to compassion for homeless single mothers and their children.\u00a0 The Bridge of Hope ministry model was built on a three-way partnership between homeless families, trained church-based mentoring groups and professional social work and education staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis merger brings together two non-profits whose missions, Christian foundations and geographies are similar. What previously set us apart was our range of services. \u00a0It truly is a cause for celebration because together we can reach out and embrace our neighbors in new ways, offering hope, homes and eventually independence to those experiencing homelessness,\u201d added Hoffer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two established non-profits that serve the homeless population of Chester and Lancaster Counties \u2013 Good Samaritan Shelter and Bridge of Hope Lancaster & Chester Counties \u2013 announce the official merger that uniquely positions the organizations to provide a full range of services to address homelessness. The new organization has been re-named Good Samaritan Services to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9781,15,9780,2746,5688],"class_list":["post-26857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bridge-of-hope-lancaster-chester-counties","tag-chester-county","tag-good-samaritan-shelter","tag-homeless","tag-merger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26858,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26857\/revisions\/26858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}