Blog

July marks the halfway point of the calendar year, but for Waypoint, it marks the beginning of fiscal year 2025 (FY25). For a lot of our staff, this beginning point is a mix of reflecting on our achievements from last fiscal year, while also planning for the new year. In this time of excitement and planning, I thought it would best to share some updates and quotes from our staff.

What does it take to continually meet the needs of the community? That’s a question most nonprofits ask themselves regularly as they continue to grow and adapt their services. Recently, we asked ourselves this question regarding our Housing Serivces, which has seen significant growth over the last five years.

May is a time to dive right in when it comes to supporting Waypoint. I say this literally, because we have our Plunging for a Purpose event coming up next week! It’s set to be a day that focuses on health, wellness, and, most importantly, advocacy for Waypoint’s services.

April marks National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW), and through that, some extra outreach and celebration of our Survivors’ Program. This year, we were able to partner with local police departments and district attorneys to display a banner and yard signs to raise awareness of the national movement...

Belief is the strength from which we build our hopes and dreams into something tangible. Something real. Visible. Actions come from belief, and so does hope. Any mission is going to have a belief behind it. I know for a fact that Waypoint has...

130 years ago, Waypoint started as Cedar Rapids’ chapter of the Young Women Christian’s Association (YWCA). In going over our history, it feels like we’ve been on the same journey of inspiring people to move forward in times of change since our inception. That has always been our central purpose, the foundation that has been our true north as we grew to become the Waypoint we are today...

With the holiday season wrapped up and a new year underway, let’s get some updates from our fabulous CEO, Jaye Kennedy.

Over the past five years, we have seen tremendous growth within our Housing Services and the number of individuals served has increased by more than 10,000 individuals. With this increase in services comes the need to clarify with our community what services we are providing, why some of them are changing, and how we are keeping these changes centered on Housing First practices.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. To explain what it’s like to provide domestic violence support, who better to hear it from other than one of our Advocates? Lisa has been a Waypoint Domestic Violence Victim Advocate in the Black Hawk County area for the past 10+ years. Here are some of her answers to questions about working with victim of domestic violence and what her typical day looks like as an Advocate.

In looking back over the number of individuals Waypoint served last fiscal year, I feel it’s time to look at what the year has meant for us as a whole.