United Way grants buoy NECC programs

The North East Community Center (NECC) is one among nearly 40 organizations that was recently awarded grant money from the United Way of Dutchess-Orange Region (UWDOR). More than $1.1 million will be distributed among 54 different community service programs in total (some organizations received more than one grant), with 35 being “programs that influence United Way’s primary impact areas of education, income, health and women’s leadership,” and 19 being “crisis intervention” programs, according to the UWDOR.NECC received three grants from the United Way this year. The first was a $6,000 grant to continue longtime support for the center’s income tax service, which it provides free to the community. The grant helps pay for the training of volunteers who prepare taxes for hundreds of people each year. This year NECC did roughly 325 tax returns, and “that number goes up every year,” according to NECC Executive Director Jenny Hansell.“The project brings refunds and tax credits back to families, free of charge, and we’ve been doing it for about eight years,” Hansell said.The community center also received a $15,000 grant for its healthy living project, which aims to bring good, nutritious food and physical exercise awareness to all of its participants. Hansell said she was surprised recently to learn the local North East (Webutuck) Central School District has the highest obesity rate of any school district in Dutchess County, and also the highest free and reduced lunch numbers, showing high poverty levels.“This is why we do this,” she said. “And it’s important in the after-school program that it will help give a little more money to have fresh fruits and vegetables every day and to do more physical activity.”The third grant NECC received was actually a good news/bad news scenario, said Hansell.“We had big cuts this year from last year for our case management program,” she said. “That is where a lot of times we did work in the community if there was a crisis.”People in need would look to NECC for support, and they would get it. That support might have been money to help with groceries or rent, to help pay the bills or a doctor, or to repair a car in order to get to work or other appointments.“Those funds were cut quite a bit this year,” Hansell said. Last year NECC received $26,000 from the United Way for social services crisis intervention; this year it received $10,000. That money has to be split between staff time and funds that go directly to help people in need. “Funders always change their focus and they just made their changes to that side this year, so we’re hoping people will help us with more donations this year.”The community center also missed out on a grant it had been counting on for a parenting support program; last year it received $13,000 for that initiative. It was not funded this year by the United Way.Despite cutbacks, Hansell said she’s grateful for the support NECC gets from the United Way. All together this year it added up to $31,000 — down from last year’s nearly $50,000 — but that still means a lot to the perpetually financially-strapped nonprofit organization.“It’s incredibly important because the United Way funds come from donations from people throughout the community and what they’re able to do is take people’s individual smaller donations and use them strategically by aggregating them,” she said. “The United Way gets money from all the people and picks the programs with the greatest impact. They’re a great partner. They help pick volunteers; they think strategically, they’re more than just money. They provide all this support to nonprofits like ours and access to resources, like us, in far parts of our county people otherwise might not get.”Chairman of the United Way Board of Directors Steve Howell stressed the collaborative effort behind many of its decisions.“The United Way fully embraces the concept of collaboration and mutual support to meet the needs in our community,” he said in a recent statement from the agency. “We work with our partners to raise funds, identify needs and ensure that the grants are going directly toward addressing the most urgent needs in our community. We are extremely fortunate to have so many volunteers who give freely of their time, talent and expertise so that we may help those less fortunate.”In addition to the NECC, United Way grants were also awarded locally to Astor Services for Children & Families (which has a child care center in Millerton), Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (in Millbrook), the Council on Addiction Prevention & Education of Dutchess County, Inc. (CAPE, which works with Harlem Valley school districts, among others) and the Grace Smith House (which provides sanctuary to Dutchess County women and children in abusive relationships).It’s help that is available thanks to ongoing donations from the community.“We are grateful for the support of our business and community partners and individual donors whose generous donations help to fund United Way’s community impact grants each year,” stated Donald Hammond, president and CEO of the United Way of Dutchess-Orange Region. “It is thanks to them that we are able to collaborate with the many human service programs that provide aid and assistance to residents in need in our two-county region.”