Toward the end of last year, Sharonview's leadership and I focused on building a strategic plan for 2024 and beyond. The discussion naturally turned to our community pillars: Ending Homelessness, Alleviating Hunger and Promoting Financial Literacy. These are causes that we, as an organization, seek to support and uplift. As we reflected, it seemed that promoting financial literacy was helpful, but redundant – it's what we do, day in and day out as we strive to help our members achieve their financial goals. This allowed me to introduce something that is near and dear to my heart: Mental Health Advocacy and Awareness.

This new pillar is in alignment with the other two as there can be overlap of individuals and families impacted by mental health concerns while facing food and shelter insecurity. All three of these community-focused pillars are supported by our organization's desire to improve financial literacy in the communities we serve.