Simply put, Gamma House changed Heather Altus’s life. “I walked out of jail and walked here. Gamma house is a safe haven. It helps people who have unmanageable lives learn to manage them,” she said. A transitional shelter for women and children in Mountain Home, Gamma House recently took the significant step of committing to build a permanent endowment to support its operations, with the aid of $1,000 in seed money from Twin Lakes Community Foundation (TLCF).

The start-up grant was awarded to Gamma House and two other nonprofit organizations as part of TLCF’s ongoing nonprofit development series, the Leadership Conference on Service and Volunteerism. Now Gamma House can make an investment in its future, even as it continues to provide day-to-day services for women and children seeking to gain financial independence and secure housing of their own.