Homeless No More, Ritedose Corporation partner to build summer camp, back-to-school space
COLUMBIA, SC—Keeping homeless families intact is difficult under the best circumstances. The historic pandemic adds to the challenges.
That’s why Homeless No More of Columbia, an organization dedicated to helping homeless families stay together to become self-sufficient, and the Columbia-based Ritedose Corporation partnered to build an outdoor pavilion for families that use the nonprofit’s emergency and transitional housing services.
The dedication of the pavilion was held today at Family Shelter on Two Notch Road.
“With COVID-19, our organization has to be creative and flexible as we meet the needs of our homeless families with children,” said Lila Anna Sauls, President/CEO of Homeless No More. “The generous donation from the Ritedose Corporation allowed us to create an outdoor space where we are able to serve the children of Family Shelter and St. Lawrence Place during summer camp in the safest way possible.”
“This summer brought about challenges unlike any we’ve experienced in our children’s program. To make sure childcare was not an issue for our families, a new type of summer camp was created and moved outside,” said Laura Stokes, Children’s Program Coordinator at Homeless No More. “This allowed camp to happen each day while maintaining social distancing and safety. Adding the pavilion to the Family Shelter campus provides shade during hot summer days for the children to enjoy meals, arts and crafts, and games while still remaining outside.”
The shelter will also be used for online learning as schools resume.
“Homeless No More provides such a unique service to families that have fallen on tough times,” said Jody Chastain, CEO of The Ritedose Corporation, a Columbia-based pharmaceutical company. “When Lila Anna asked how we could partner to help provide some much-needed outdoor space for the children, we didn’t hesitate to help. Seeing the project come to life makes us so proud to be part of such meaningful work in the community. We look forward to the families and children enjoying the use of this pavilion, along with the love and respect that Lila Anna and her team exemplify toward them daily.”
Facts about Homeless No More
• Homeless No More is a nonprofit organization that believes family homelessness is entirely solvable. Its continuum of care—from emergency services to transitional and affordable housing—keeps each family together and meets their needs at the right time with the right services. By providing support to move each family toward a permanent, self-sufficient solution, we can eradicate family homelessness and help parents and their children achieve lasting independence.
• The Family Emergency Shelter provided rapid response services to 173 children and 93 families in 2018-2019.
• St. Lawrence Place is a 30-home transitional community offering support services, life skills training and up to two years of housing for homeless families. It served 86 children and 45 families in 2018-2019.
• Live Oak Place provides affordable homes to at-risk families ready to bridge the gap from transitional housing to independent living in homes across Columbia.
• Ninety-one percent of Homeless No More’s families moved from transitional to permanent housing in 2018-2019.
Facts about The Ritedose Corporation
• Founded in Columbia in 1995 with 11 employees, The Ritedose Corporation is a pharmaceutical development and manufacturing company that has grown to 360 employees and conducts all its development, manufacturing and packaging on a 33-acre campus in Richland County.
• It occupies a 120,000 sq.ft. manufacturing facility and a 153,000 sq.ft. packaging and distribution facility with an annual capacity of 1.8 billion doses.
• The company has delivered more than 6 billion doses of drugs since 2012 without a single recall.
• The Ritedose Corporation is one of the world’s highest capacity Blow-Fill-Seal facilities and currently serves multiple clients from clinical trials through full-scale commercialization, specializing in the production of inhalation products, eye drops, eardrops, and oral liquids. A new outsourcing facility will focus on the production, packaging and distribution of compounded drug products for physicians and hospitals.
• The company produces 99 percent of its products for U.S. customers and has been noted for its excellent compliance record by regulators, which include the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, State Boards of Pharmacy, U.S. Pharmacopeia, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.