John Tumino

As we are approaching the winter we are strongly encouraging our friends living outdoors to make some serious choices about coming indoors. Pictured here is the inside of a dwelling place of two of our friends. Homelessness for these two friends was caused by a serious drug addiction which escalated into a breakdown in the family system that caused them to lose their housing. During the summer months they call it camping out but on a cold autumn night, moving towards fridged winter temperatures it’s called survival. Believe with us that our two friends make the positive choice of doing the things needed to start the housing process. All we can do is keep showing up with no judgment and loving our friends in the middle of their brokenness. We believe because of this approach our friends will turn to us when their surrender moment happens. It’s heartbreaking to see and to hear the excuses for not changing but we use love as the tool that can break down every obstacle. Thank you for your support 

Moving Towards Winter

Today was the Day for Dan to get his dentures! Big Shout out to Dr. David Lehmann and Housecalls for the Homeless – Upstate (H4H) for making this dream a reality!
In 2018 Doc started his collaboration with IMFK and that’s when Dan and Doc met.
IMFK met Dan in 2015 and assisted him in navigating into housing in 2019. Over the last 5 years, H4H has been instrumental in bringing a higher level of care to Dan through the medical services Doc provides.
We remember the day Dan asked for assistance with his teeth, Doc immediately said “Let’s get you to the DENTIST”! The appointment was made to Dr. Romano at Summit Dental and the rest is now History! Thank you Doc and H4H for financially investing in Dan, look at that million-dollar smile. Dan,
YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE

Great Day on a beautiful day in Syracuse loving on our friends outdoors. Collaboration with Housecalls for the Homeless – Upstate is always a wonderful thing. Rachel Med Student (MS2) learned some things regarding our friends foot situation. Our dear friend is 71 and living outdoors. We are assisting her in navigating to housing but in the mean time the Medical team is on the Job.
Together we are Building Hope and Changing Lives

One of our Missions at IMFK is to bring awareness of the situation of homelessness in our community. We have been able to do this through public speaking as well as using social media, check out this testimonial!

I have known about your agency and mission for years and I was recently moved by your words. So after hearing you speak at St Joseph’s Church in Camillus two Sundays ago, I unrolled the car window that very next morning on my way to work while on the Downtown exit ramp and handed a friend some items and told him “I see you”.  I have worked in the City for 20 years and this is the first time I was brave enough to do that. Thank you for opening my eyes! God Bless.

~Kathy~

What a year it has been with the opening of our new project Mission 124/7 Life House. We accepted our first resident into the home on November 1st and Leigh Ann and the team have hit the ground running. Our resident will be with us for a year as she learns the skills needed to re-enter a life free from sex trafficking. She was able to experience a great Thanksgiving with our team and the work started for her to be reconnected with her children. Because of your support we were able to purchase gifts for her kids for Christmas. Our resident was able to spend some time with her children for Christmas and she was able to give them presents this year. Can you say Christmas Miracle for Her! You are part of that miracle and we say thank you!

This year during street outreach we were able to assist over 30 friends with housing while serving well over 1000 meals in 2022!

The end of this year was tough losing 3 friends in the course of 13 days. We were able to do the services for the families as well as have our friends attend so they could say their goodbyes.

Our Hire Ground Program was able to have over 250 unduplicated riders participate in cleaning our community. That meant no panhandling for the day because of this many of our friends were connected to different services in the community. We were able to show them dignity through work and relationships. 

Your relationship with IMFK is crucial, after watching this video will you consider the best year-end gift and push us over the top going into 2023.

Thank you so much for your love and support and HAPPY NEW YEAR

John and Leigh Ann