Love Columbia

Love Columbia is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit serving under-resourced people in Columbia, Missouri who are struggling to provide for their basic needs or improve their life and want help to create a path forward.

Mission:

To see individual lives and the community transformed through neighbors helping neighbors. We believe this is best done through a holistic approach where we serve the whole person and engage the whole community. We are motivated and inspired by the extravagant love and selfless service of Jesus who sought out the most vulnerable and disadvantaged and lifted them up.

Growth Journey and Vision:

Love Columbia has experienced remarkable growth, expanding our staff to over 40 full-time employees and nearly quadrupling our budget since 2019. This period has also seen a 152% increase in the number of clients we serve, underscoring our deepening impact in the community. 

Building on this momentum, our vision for the future includes:

• Sustainable Expansion: Continuing to scale our operations and outreach in a sustainable manner, ensuring that every expansion step is well-integrated into our holistic service model.
• Infrastructure Development: Enhancing our campus footprint, which now includes the acquisition of single-home transitional housing and the forthcoming construction of a transitional housing complex, to better serve our community’s needs.
• Program Innovation: Developing new programs that address the evolving challenges faced by our clients, with a focus on long-term solutions and self-sufficiency.
• Community Integration: Strengthening partnerships with local organizations and community stakeholders to harness collective resources and knowledge, maximizing the impact of our efforts.

This vision is guided by our heart to love people forward, ensuring that as we grow, we continue to hold steadfast to our unique model of serving the whole person.

Values:

1. Every person is created in the image of God, has intrinsic worth, and should be treated with dignity and respect.

2. A community flourishes best when we love our neighbors as ourselves.

3. People trying to improve their lives or escape poverty often face complex barriers and need an individualized, multi-faceted approach that addresses informational, relational, material, and spiritual poverty.

4. Change best occurs in the context of relationship. We need one another in order to grow and must have positive relationships in order to take significant steps forward.

5. People who offer help are enriched and changed just as much, if not more, than those who receive help.

6. We can accomplish more if we work together. We avoid duplication, and everyone’s positive outcomes increase.

7. We have an abundance of time, talent, and resources in our community and, if they are well organized and engaged, everyone in the community will be lifted up.