The Lighthouse Foundation was established in 1985 to fill identified gaps in basic human services to needy and impoverished adults, single mothers and their families, and seniors. The Lighthouse Foundation is also the lone provider of housing to homeless young adults and single parents with young children in its service area. Its primary beneficiaries are single adult women, single mothers and their families, and senior women.
Today, The Lighthouse maintains operations at five sites, annually serving more than 6,000 clients through nearly 18,000 contacts from northern Allegheny and Butler Counties that address emergency and critical care, transitioning and empowerment needs. The Lighthouse Foundation operates through the private charitable and public support of more than 1,500 individuals, bodies of faith, agencies, foundations, business and service organizations.
The Lighthouse Foundation is a treasure in our community. Some of programs they provide are:
- Transitional Housing. With 4 different locations; Armour Apartments, The Kaufmann Drive Townhomes, Blanchard House, and The Penny House. Each house helps residents work on their goals of education, employment, and permanent housing.
- Food Pantry, since 1985, over 5.3 million pounds of food has been distributed and over 182,000 meals were served. The Food Bank operates every Thursday evening and on alternate Friday mornings.
- Furniture and Appliance Warehouse where donated furniture and appliances are supplied to crisis victims. They have provided over 42,000 pieces of furniture and appliances.
- Emergency Shelter/Safe Harbor is an emergency homeless shelter located on West New Castle Street in the heart of Butler’s downtown area. Safe Harbor provides five emergency shelter apartments for individuals or families. The Safe Harbor facility provides emergency shelter for up to 60 days to individuals and families who find themselves suddenly homeless. Once someone is accepted into the Safe Harbor facility, the Lighthouse assesses the needs of that individual and begins helping him/her to receive income through employment, Supplemental Security Income, or public assistance. They also assist residents of Safe Harbor in finding affordable housing and work closely with volunteers from Catholic Charities to help residents learn life skills.
- Wheels of Work program provides safe and reliable vehicles to disadvantaged families and individuals of Southwestern Pennsylvania. When a vehicle is donated it goes to help needy individuals and families in their transition from dependency to self-sufficiency. The vehicle is reconditioned for a needy family or sold to provide funds to recondition other vehicles.
Since its beginning in 1985, The Lighthouse Foundation has:
- Served over 145,000 meals
- Provided over 45,000 nights of lodging through the transitional housing program
- Provided computer training to over 1,200 people
- Received and redistributed over 1,400 donated vehicles
- Prevented eviction, foreclosure or utility termination for over 5,000 families at a cost of more than $750,000
- Logged over 3,500,000 miles transporting food, furniture, vehicles and people
- Fielded over 300,000 requests from people in crisis or facing emergencies
- Provided help, hope and healing to over 35,000 people
- Distributed over 350,000 toys to local needy children at Christmas
- Returned over $12 million in goods and services to the needy families of northern Allegheny and Butler Counties
An organization like The Lighthouse Foundation can exist only because there are caring people reaching out to serve their neighbors regardless of their background.
Ways that WBN members can help:
- We can go to The Lighthouse and help assist in the organization and distribution of food that comes into the center.
- We can attend recreational outings to take the women and children of The Lighthouse on.
- At Christmas time we can collect toys and monetary donations for the annual toy drive.
- We can also collect bedding, linens, toiletries, household items, clothes, gift cards to grocery and retail stores, and monetary donations to be distributed to the women and families as they come and then leave the facility to be on their own again.
- We can assist with the childcare, cleaning, and maintenance at the center.
Please look for opportunities that will be presented to your Chapter Rep each month to help The Lighthouse Foundation out. We will be doing collection of donated items at each of the annual events; Fall Networking, Holiday Breakfast, Spring Networking, Annual Dinner. If you have questions about how you can volunteer or donate please contact Heather Rodgers, 724-776-6990, heather@general-rental-center.com or The Lighthouse Foundation, 1302 Cruikshank Rd at Rt 8, Butler PA 16002, 724-898-HOPE (4673).
