FCFP’s Nonprofit Spotlight: Lycoming County United Way offers a hand up through program partners
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Think of the work of the Lycoming County United Way as hands lifting up members of the community through the program
partners they sponsor.
It could be a mother-to-be learning what to do now to ensure the health of her baby through the Nurse Family Partnership Program. It could be giving a voice to abused and neglected children, through CASA, as they navigate the confusing and often scary court system. Or, it could be a warm meal that nourishes the body and a message of love that feeds the soul at Sojourner Truth Ministry. Community partners lifting up the community.
"Partnerships are really an important part of our community," said Ron Frick, executive director of the Lycoming County United Way.
"Had it not been for the resources of the First Community Foundation Partnership in Pennsylvania and the development of that partnership with the Lycoming County United Way, you know, many, many of the things that we do in this community would just not be possible," he noted.
Mobilizing resources to improve lives has been the focus of the United Way since Frick assumed the leadership of the non-profit five years ago.. And then moving those resources into the hands of program partners who reach out with that lift up to the community.
"We really made a fundamental shift from being an organization that was primarily focused on resource development and fundraising-the annual campaign-to really an organization focused on community impact, building partnerships not only with our existing community partners but with other sorts of unlikely partners or partners that might not have worked with us before, directly," Frick said.
By working together with organizations like CASA, Sojourner Truth and the Nurse Family Partnership Program, the United Way can mobilize resources and ensure that there is no duplication of service in the community.
"The other nice thing about doing it that way is that there are organizations that have learned from each other and are able to leverage the resources from other community organizations so that we can really do the best as a community in helping those that need us the most," Frick said.
"That's really been the role of the United Way is to act as that facilitator to make sure that community organizations know what's out there and know who's working together and do it all for the betterment of the community," he added.
CASA
The Susquehanna Valley CASA, Voices for Children, is part of a national organization that serves, through advocacy of trained volunteers, abused and neglected children in the court dependency system, according to Corey Mowrey, president of the group's board of directors.
Nationally, CASA has over 950 individual programs serving 250,000 children annually. Susquehanna Valley CASA serves Lycoming, Union, Snyder and Northumberland counties. They have been serving in Lycoming County alone for 20 years.
Their mission, Zabrina Finn, executive director said, is to provide each child with advocacy to ensure that they "thrive in a safe and permanent home environment."
"We do that by advocating on an individual basis but also advocating in the community in order to make sure that children in the dependency system have better permanent outcomes in the end," she said.
National statistics have shown that a child with a CASA volunteer spends seven to eight months less in the court dependency system and is less likely to ever re-enter the system.
"We're proud of the work that we do because it helps to lead to more expeditious outcomes and permanent outcomes. We know that when a case is closed, the child is in a place where they're able to thrive and be loved and supported," Mowrey said.
Caseworkers in Children and Youth departments are many times faced with large caseloads and can't provide the individualized interaction that a CASA volunteer, who is assigned an individual child or sibling set, can offer once they complete a 30-hour training course.
"All of their dedication and focus and efforts are honed in on that individual or sibling set and through that singular focus," Mowrey said.
"They're able to gather more information and learn more-dig deeper," he added.
The information is then brought to the court through a written report along with additional facts. Recommendations are then made to the court, which the court then determines if they want to implement them.
"It's that additional information that the court finds so valuable because the more facts and evidence the court has at its disposal when trying to enter an order and make determinations the better these outcomes lead for the child," he said.
"Having United Way funding at CASA is what allows us to do things like have more volunteer recruitment that's targeted so that we have better quality, high standard volunteers because that's what the kids in our program deserve to have-a talented, dedicated, high quality person that's willing to give up several hours of their personal life in order to make sure that the child's story if heard by the people that need to hear it," said Finn.
Nurse Family Partnership
The UPMC Nurse-Family Partnership is a first-time home visiting program for moms in Lycoming and Clinton counties. The program focuses on moms anywhere from 20 weeks or lower in their pregnancies.
"We go out and see them at home. We're able to form bonds and relationships with these families that they wouldn't normally get through their doctor's offices or places like that," said Alison Farley, Nurse Home Visitor, Nurse-Family Partnership.
"We're able to go in, get to know these moms and get to work with them through their pregnancies and then continue to stay with them until their babies turn two," she said.
The program is designed for moms that are low income. It's a little higher than the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) medical assistance program.
"It gives a little bit more wiggle room to catch some of the people that are kind of falling in the outlying area that may still really need the help in that target population of the lower income families," Farley said.
"There's a lot of things that they see, like food insecurity. They have trouble with finding homes that are affordable to them. They sometimes have issues with transportation with being able to make it to their doctor's appointments," she explained.
The Nurse-Family Partnership Program does not provide money or transportation but they do connect the people with the resources to enable them to "be successful in having an environment that would be safe for a baby to be raised in," she said.
She remarked that through working with the United Way and their network there is an exchange of information on what community resources are available.
"They know the resources in this community and can work together to link our families with what is there," said Lisa Ritchey, director, Nurse-Family Partnership.
The program is entirely voluntary and free of charge to moms.
Sojourner Truth Ministry
For the Rev. C. Angelique Labadie-Cihanowyz executive director of Sojourner Truth Ministries, the United Way has helped with more than just the ministry's feeding program.
"Our feeding program goes into everything else that we do. I've also been able to call with professional questions and teambuilding questions and board questions and things like that," she said.
"I truly feel like they are a partner with us and it's not limited to finances. As we share in victories or stories of things that have happened directly as a result of the United Way, then it's the impact that we have in the lives of individuals in our community," she said.
She shared the story of a man who had moved to the area to help care for grandchildren following the death of a family member.
"Four to five times a week he has brought the grandchildren so that they can see positive role models and so not only does the family get fed physically...so we give them regular food but then they get all kinds of "soul food," she said.
"I think it's really important to be a part of supporting the United Way because it doesn't just go to necessarily the things you might think like the high profile organizations which are great, but also lie the little people that might otherwise fall through the cracks," she said.
"And United Way seems to, through the support of many, just spreads the wealth kind of and also with that...they spread their support," she added.
For more information on the First Community Foundation Partnership https://www.fcfpartnership.org/
For more information on the Lycoming County United Way, https://www.lcuw.org/.
The above story was written from a Sun-Gazette video interview that can be viewed on our YouTube channel.