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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
For the past 78 years, Travelers Aid Society has made serving people in need its business. For most of that time, the private, non-profit, social services agency has helped people find their way home. In the early days, Travelers Aid Society helped reconnect the stranded traveler, the lost child and the elderly passing through Salt Lake City.
Since 1923, Travelers Aid Society has evolved its role in the Salt Lake City community beyond emergency services and now places significant emphasis on programs designed to transition people from shelters to permanent, affordable housing.
But these days, it isn’t just lives that are changing at the agency. It’s the name. The agency’s board of trustees, which is comprised of several upstanding, caring individuals, has announced that Travelers Aid Society will now be known as The Road Home. The new name, they believe, more appropriately reflects the agency’s mission and the long-lasting effects of its services. And those effects have been substantial.
Last year, The Road Home’s Housing Program helped 170 households—that is more than 200 adults and 120 children--that were homeless find the housing they needed.
The Road Home received the majority of its needed revenue last year from private donors who contributed approximately $1.8 million. Along with those donors, The Road Home depends on the United Way and local, state and federal government agencies, which contribute toward its programs, infrastructure and costs. In all, The Road Home received approximately $3.5 million in total revenue. Plus, the Jon M. Huntsman Family Community Shelter Trust has been a critical means of support for the program’s operation.
Though it has a new name, The Road Home’s mission won’t change. It will continue to offer emergency services and self-sufficiency resources for people experiencing homelessness. It will also continue advocating for community shelter and housing programs, and its team of caring people will continue to support those who show outstanding individual effort in finding their road home.
For Zions Bank, I’m Fred Ball. I’m speaking on business.
