Dear friends of Malta House,

What a wonderful spring it has been! So many exciting things have been happening at Malta House and I am excited to share them with you!

We have merged our existing programming that helps our moms gain the life skills necessary to be an effective head of household with a workforce development component. We have enhanced our existing programming that will assist our moms to build their own pathway to economic independence and sustainable self-sufficiency, and our goal is to ensure that our moms are acquiring the resources, skills and sustained behavior changes necessary to provide for themselves and their children.

The licensing of our nursery is coming to fruition! The Office of Early Childhood accepted our application and gave us a list of tasks to be completed in order for the license to be approved. Now that all those tasks have been done, we are waiting for the OEC to review the complete application and approve our license! The Nursery at Malta House will be licensed to accommodate 12 children ages 6 weeks to 3 years. Having day care for our moms will allow them to attend the above-mentioned programming without the worry about childcare!

When our nursery closed, many of the opportunities to volunteer at Malta House came to an end. Unfortunately, due to state nursery licensing requirements, many of the prior nursery volunteer opportunities will no longer be available. However, we all know how so many of our volunteers love to come and hold and love our babies! So, we are working on creating a volunteer opportunity for Saturdays, where volunteers can come to Malta House for a few hours to babysit our babies providing moms a few hours of free time, to get their laundry done, grocery shop, do their homework, or whatever they need to do. Stay tuned – details to come.

We have been truly blessed with the volunteers who have come to help with projects at Malta House. The Knights of Columbus from St. Matthew Parish have volunteered to help us get our classroom ready. They have been spackling, sanding and painting so that this room is all set for our classroom activities. Notre Dame High School came and did a spring clean-up in our back yard to get the space pristine for our moms and babies. And Marsh came and spruced up our outdoor space with the cleaning of our flower beds and planting some beautiful flowers donated by All Saints School Science Department for all our moms to enjoy.

We had a beautiful gathering at Malta House for our resident and graduate moms for Mother’s Day. Each of our moms were given flowers, and a gift bag filled with wonderful surprises donated by the members of Shorehaven Country Club. Honoring our moms on their special day put a smile on the faces of all who attended.

The Mark Schultz Concert held in March at the Quick Center at Fairfield University was spectacular thanks to the hard work of Deacon Steve and Missy from St. Francis of Assisi in West as well Michael O’Rourke and Onupam Martins and the other great volunteers. Mark Schultz is a talented musician who believes in the great works of Malta House and donates the proceeds from the concert to Malta House. Everyone who came was treated to a night of great music and stories. God’s love was truly present.

The Malta House Annual Gala was a night to remember. Our Gala committee worked diligently to create a special night to celebrate the amazing work of Malta House. It was our privilege to honor George McCrimlisk and The Green Foundation for their unwavering support of Malta House that has enabled us to continue to provide shelter, support and hope to pregnant and parenting moms facing homelessness. We are truly grateful for their partnership.

Malta House continues to be a place of love and hope for our moms and babies, and we are truly grateful to all who help to make this a reality.

All my best,

Lisa Casagrande Koeppel

Executive Director

Malta House, Inc.

www.maltahouse.org

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