School is back in session!

Our children and families at Gateway180 have said goodbye to summer and packed their bags for the new school year.  

Gateway180 is currently called home to 36 students, with 75% attending St. Louis Public Schools and 25% at charter schools. As part of our shelter program, we require all school-age children to be enrolled and attend school or homeschooled with a provided curriculum. We often see an uptick in families seeking to enter shelter prior to the start of the school year so that they will have a permanent address to enroll their children in school and partake in other government-funded programs and aid. 

With school back in session, our shelter programming ramps up child-focused education & activities to support and enrich our students. Thanks to our SLU tutors, we are able to offer tutoring & mentoring 3 days a week to our kiddos. In addition, we offer our young girls the opportunity to be a part of our blended-age Girl Scout troop to engage in activities that promote leadership, self-exploration and empowerment.

With the start of a fresh school year, our children are full of hope, pride, excitement (and maybe some jitters) as they start on a new journey. It’s important we continue to be their safe, nurturing and empowering place to call HOME each night.

A special thank you to our Goldfarb Nursing Students and Transition STL for helping to get our kids ready for the new school year with new backpacks full of school supplies and a fun bash!

Meet Our Board: Angela Morton Conley

Meet our Gateway180 Board Vice Chair, Angela Morton Conley!

Angela Morton Conley is considered our "expert in residence" with her impressive resume of community roles in St. Louis. She was our city's first Executive Director of the Affordable Housing Commission, which is where she became acquainted with Gateway180 over 20 years ago (then known as Christian Service Center). During that time, our board was under the leadership of the late Nicholas Clifford, who served as Board Chair and stepped in as acting Executive Director for a brief period, and Board Chair Emeritus, Paul Eckrich. "Funding the agency became a partnership, and I was struck by their caring and the level of services they offered the homeless community," said Angela.

It was only natural that Angela would become a beacon and part of our mission. After leaving her role with the Affordable Housing Commission, she was invited to join our board in 2014 by Board Chairperson at the time, Derrick Thomas. Having previously served on the St. Patrick's Center Board of Directors and held paid positions at Urban League and the YWCA, she is well versed in our communities' resources and challenges for our neighbors in need. In her past 10 years with Gateway180, she has served on several different committees, but has found "her knitch" in her current role as Vice Chair for the past 5 years, chairing our Human Resources Committee and lending support to our Executive Director, Kathy Connors, and our Board Chair, Laura Landmann. 

Angela's passion for helping others and housing perfectly aligns with her real estate brokerage, "Premier Spaces Real Estate", that she founded in 1993 (a.k.a. her "baby"). Through this, she is able to provide her personalized real estate services to first-time home buyers and other clients. 

Why is she passionate about serving on our board? Angela said, "I think that decent, safe and sanitary housing should be a human right. And though things happen to stunt our growth and steal our security, Gateway180, Homelessness Reversed, restores human dignity. We provide temporary shelter and a path to permanent housing and independence."