OUR MISSION
We believe that Salem-Keizer will be the healthiest community in Oregon: the city of Shalom. We engage people of faith and people of goodwill to transform the community neighborhood by neighborhood.
We work to find those individuals who understand that real change only happens when we address both the social and spiritual issues facing our city. We then connect them with other leaders, equip and resource them. We sometimes build collaborative and initiatives around a challenge. Then we cheer them on, celebrate and encourage Shalom where we see it.
The total amount SLF invests in a CaN Center is $24,000/year. When we add-in the value of the In-kind Donations, which can include space, food, clothing, art supplies, books, games, computers, the average value of CaN Center space and donations is a whopping $46,000 per church. Finally, we calculate the monetary value of volunteer hours. The typical CaN Center has 18 volunteers who generate 9,000 hours per year. The value of their time: $185,000. When you add it all together, the value of each CaN Center is $247,000!
It takes $48,000 to deploy a full-time Lightning Rod in their respective high-school feeder areas. On average, each LR helps generate $32,000 in cash funding and grants each year. Add to that the value of in-kind supplies and materials which are cobbled-together by each Lightning Rod for our partners – that adds up to $135,000 annually. When we calculate the value of volunteers and volunteer time, the leverage really spikes. It’s more than $327,000 per year per Lightning Rod. So, sum total, each Lightning Rod generates a leveraged value of $494,000. That is a return-on-investment, or an ROI, of 11 to 1.
