Furniture Donation Helps Foster Youth of Xenia

Being a wise steward of its resources and seeing a way to serve others in the community, Cedarville University will donate desks, chairs, bunk beds, and dressers that it no longer uses in its residential housing to the Emerge Recovery Trade Initiative (ERTI) in Xenia. The items from Cedarville will be delivered to the ERTI campus May 9-10.

The donated items have an estimated value of $20,000.

For ERTI, the items will furnish several housing areas, including one for young people aging out of the foster care system who seek shelter and a support system as they adjust to the adult world. Also, men and women in recovery who come to ERTI for holistic care will benefit from the furniture.

“I’m amazed by this outpouring of generosity,” said Elaine Bonner, ERTI’s director of philanthropy. “We were thrilled to work with Cedarville University, a faith-based organization that, like us, helps build people up by giving them purpose.”

ERTI, which provides transformational housing, job training, and pathways to employment for individuals aging out of foster care and men and women recovering from substance use disorders, is set to open in phases throughout 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 on the former Greene County Career Center’s 48-acre campus.

ERTI also partners with local “second-chance employers” to provide job opportunities to those who graduate from their programs and may otherwise face unemployment due to their pasts.

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,715 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio, recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings and high student engagement ranking. For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu.