Mary’s Shelter
Leader: Christine Folk, Executive Director
Location: Reading, PA
Business: Social Services Organization
Purpose of Loan: Property Renovation
Impact: Economic Security
Mary’s Shelter is the only residential facility specifically for pregnant women in the Berks County community. Their mission is to provide residential and life skill services for pregnant women and women with newborns who face homelessness or lack family support. While caring for women in need, they prepare mothers with newborns for independent living.
To help meet the growing demand for their services, leadership at Mary’s Shelter realized they needed to relocate to a larger facility. Fortunately, they were able to acquire an ideal property, a former Naval/Marine Reserve Center in the city of Reading. However, getting financing for extensive renovations needed to transform the property proved much more challenging.
Finanta provided a loan to close the financing gap for the necessary property renovations. Additionally, our financing spurred donations from the community to cover additional costs for the new facilities. As a result, Mary’s Shelter has doubled their capacity for residential services and tripled their capacity for community outreach services.