Exciting developments for Solace!

Posted by Samantha Haas on Wednesday, August 31st, 2022 at 8:14am.

We are excited to share that Solace Friends, Inc., the nonprofit we recently featured on our blog, has found a home and hired an executive director! 

Solace will soon be able to house some of the most vulnerable people in our community during their final stage of life in coordination with existing hospice and clinical care staff. The same week in June that Solace solidified a loan through Monona Bank and Forward Community Investments, Realtor Ann Raschein helped Solace submit an offer on 4142 Monona Dr, Madison – and it was accepted! 

Given how intense the real estate market was this summer, Board President and Founder Ann Catlett said in a recent newsletter update that they were “absolutely astonished to find a near-perfect home on the east side of Madison.”

Ann Raschein said, “We looked at several properties but many of them were two stories and would need a lot of work to make them more accessible. When we first saw this property on Monona Drive, the serenity and layout seemed like the perfect fit – it’s so wide open and all on one level, has a back porch, and has a view of the lake. I’m so grateful there are people like Ann who recognized a need and are doing something about it.” 

“While all of Solace’s board members and volunteers have been working steadfastly to achieve many key objectives, none of us imagined how many things could fall into place all at once,” Catlett wrote. “If our next steps proceed smoothly, we’ll begin renovating this fall and have our eyes on starting services as soon as feasibly possible.”

Leading the nonprofit into the future is executive director Amy Mondloch, who has been involved in grassroots and community initiatives her whole life and has held board and volunteer roles with JustDane, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, and WORT.

“My journey toward this work began in the early 1980s when I was just a kid and my mom had breast cancer. Her great strength through her years with the disease and through her death taught me a lot about life, about who I am, and about what’s important,” Mondloch wrote. “The lessons I learned about love and caring from my mom and all those who gathered around us then guided me to a lifetime’s work in the world of social justice.”

Mondloch said that Solace is already spreading the word about its mission to the surrounding neighborhood. “We've been just overwhelmed by the wonderful response that we've been getting from the neighborhood about Solace Home. We've been visiting with the neighborhood association and local business association and everyone is excited about the possibilities just like we are. We'll be speaking more about the project at the Lake Edge Neighborhood Association meeting on September 19th.” 

Congratulations to Solace Friends on all of these developments to further your important mission to provide dying people with a place of compassionate, safe, comfortable presence and caregiving, particularly those who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, extreme poverty, mental/emotional health issues, substance abuse disorders, and/or social isolation.

Now is a great time to help Solace help others by getting involved. Volunteer opportunities range from administrative and community outreach roles to direct personal caregiving and companionship. Read more updates about the organization, Amy Mondloch’s full welcome column, and how you can help by checking out solacefriends.org

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