Celebrating 50 Years of Community Impact

2020 is coming quickly, marking Lacasa’s 50th anniversary. What a testament to the strength of a vision and mission birthed in the late 1960’s, formalized in 1970, and impacting lives in our community ever since. What a testament to a consistent community of supporters who have fueled this mission through board service, volunteerism, donations, partnerships, service as staff members, and so much more; a community who has believed in creating opportunity for personal empowerment, family stability, and neighborhood vitality.

Our staff had a retreat in October and one thing we reflected on is that we are like runners in a relay race. We feel fortunate to take the baton, and are confident the race will continue long after we pass off the baton. Moses Beachy championed Lacasa’s vision in founding our agency in 1970. He passed the baton of leadership to Arden Shank in 1988. On September 14 this year, Moses completed his earthly journey. We trust that Lacasa’s growing impact on working families in this community honors his legacy.

Looking back is humbling and looking forward is exciting. As we have been, we continue to be in business to improve lives through good housing and opportunities to build valuable assets in the financial, neighborhood, and immigration realms. This is a growing business. Growth means greater presence of service offerings throughout the county. It means opening an office in downtown Elkhart in 2020. It means a more comprehensive array of effective services that utilize technology to better reach busy working adults. It means expanding and deepening partnerships with the nonprofit, government, and business sectors. It means creating more safe, quality, affordable housing units.

I invite your ongoing involvement with Lacasa’s mission. I invite you to consider commemorating this involvement in special ways that are meaningful to you during our 50th anniversary year.