Foundation Strategy Helps Sustain Area Families
(May 4, 2010) - Headlines remind us daily that our economy remains in a slump and although some gains have been made, the outlook for many families continues to be uncertain at best. But, while Connecticut struggles with a budget deficit that threatens to test the limits of local social service agencies, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain has acted to find solutions both short and long term. “Given the growing impact of the recession, it has been clear that we needed to find solutions that addressed the myriad of issues facing families in all four of our communities,” said Jim Williamson, President of the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain. “These solutions could not be a temporary band aid. They had to be strategic in their planning and comprehensive in their execution.”
As a first step, during Fall 2009, foundation staff gathered representatives from local emergency services agencies from Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington, as well as Hartford-based Foodshare, to discuss trends these organizations were seeing and the needs in their respective communities for food and other basic services. Not surprisingly, the providers universally reported that demand for food and basic needs is higher than ever and is likely to continue for some time. Most notably, all reported growing requests from many families who, until the recession, had themselves been supporters and contributors to the local programs:
- In Berlin, 40-plus families are now served monthly versus 10-12 households just 18 months ago;
- The Plainville Community Food Pantry reported that while food donations are up, the numbers served are up even more, and growing;
- The New Britain Food Collaborative has served 200% more people than all of its original projections; and,
- Southington Community Services and Bread for Life revealed that demand for their services has literally doubled in the past several months, with no end to the trend in sight.
In response, the Community Foundation developed a coordinated strategy that both increased grant support to basic needs programs and incorporated new supportive services to the area’s low-wage, unemployed and underemployed families. The results were three separate but interrelated grants — one that addresses the immediate issue of food security and hunger; a second to support a new coordinated response system to help income-eligible families access state and federal benefit programs; and finally a grant to expand an existing program that will help low and moderate income families become more financially stable. Phyllis Kindelan, Community Foundation Grants Committee Chair, sees this as an opportunity. “In this economy the need for basic services has increased dramatically,” stated Kindelan. “The Foundation sees this as an chance to bring services and organizations together holistically to help families in our service area.”
In December, a grant for $28,985 was awarded to Foodshare, central Connecticut’s regional food bank, for its new “Partnership Fund.” The Partnership Fund allows local food pantries to decide how to best use the grant dollars based on their needs. Those needs can range from bringing fresh foods to a program that can only store non-perishables, to purchasing a new freezer, or in some cases, actually helping a new local program get started. Suzie Woertz, Executive Director of the Plainville Food Pantry is grateful for the support. “We are thrilled that the Community Foundation gave the grant to Foodshare,” she said. “We will use the grant for a large scale to weigh food therefore providing more value for those who use our services.”
A second grant, approved the previous September, was awarded to the Connecticut Association of Human Services (CAHS) to implement an online benefit screening initiative called EarnBenefits. This two-year $20,000 grant will use technology to help families meet their basic needs and access benefits such as Medicaid, HUSKY, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and childcare subsidies. “There are so many working families who are eligible for the help but because they are unaware that these aids exists, many go without,” said Jim Horan, Executive Director of CAHS. “This support from the Community Foundation will allow us to provide access to benefits for many families in this area,” Horan concluded.
To initiate EarnBenefits in the Greater New Britain area, CAHS partnered with the Human Resources Agency and Southington Community Services to train staff at both agencies so they can accommodate their clients from New Britain, Southington, and surrounding towns, including Berlin and Plainville. To assure that communities outside New Britain had access to this new support program, the Community Foundation required that CAHS and HRA offer EarnBenefits through local basic needs agencies in Berlin, Plainville and Southington.
Finally, a third grant of $20,000, also approved in December, has helped the Human Resources Agency (HRA) to expand the New Britain Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) outreach and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to 761 additional families for the recent 2009 Tax Season. Both programs help low to moderate-income residents maximize their incomes, avoid predatory financial services and save towards the goal of becoming financially stable and independent. In essence it puts real money in the pockets of people who really need it. Marlo Greponne, Director of Planning and Program for HRA revealed some impressive numbers. “This year the number of customers we served increased by 34% and the average refund per person was $1,834. That was up 20% from 2009,” she said. “It’s working.”
Although all three grants are to different organizations, all are designed to work together to support the same essential population, those who have been most impacted by the recession in the Greater New Britain area. For many of these nonprofits, it has to be the first time they have ever worked together to coordinate service, another key Community Foundation theme. Combined with the September renewal of second year operating support of $15,000 to the New Britain Food Security Collaborative, the Foundation invested almost $84,000 in total support during its last two rounds of 2009 grantmaking to this new multi-part Sustaining Families strategy.
“Seeking out prospective grantees to work together is something we expect to do more of in coming years,” said Williamson. “We saw this as an opportunity to help strengthen the support system for our entire area, both urban and suburban. Aside from the great services these programs will provide to families most affected by the economic downturn, we are hopeful that these grants will help create a more integrated and efficient way to provide help.”