Today is National Nonprofit Day!
We are honored to join thousands of nonprofits nationwide celebrating our work, our partners, our volunteers and all of our donors and supporters! Like most nonprofits, we wouldn’t be able to do this work without your support and passion for our cause! It’s especially true after this last year where nonprofits have been needed more than ever.
We have had a productive year so far! Since January we have launched a number of new programs, including The Big Pop Up, the Duke Endowment funding, and many social determinants of health projects.
Since January, we have hosted five Big Pop Up events in different counties across the state. These are drive-thru giving events where we provide anyone in need with food, household goods, beverages, diapers and more. To date, we have helped over 5,000 families with basic needs and look forward to hosting more of these events in the future. Find more and learn about future events here.
We were also honored to be awarded the Duke Endowment grant which gave our agencies the funding they needed to help families in more ways. We have helped families pay past due utilities and rent, buy technology for remote schooling, afford high education, and more. Since the program started early this year, we have helped 499 families! You can read about the Avilas and Parks to learn how we helped their families at a critical time.
Our social determinants of health team has been working tirelessly to promote better living in several key counties. These projects include putting a food pantry in a high school, educating the community about resiliency and how to become more resilient, and creating a number of coalitions that will enact lasting change through a number of other projects. We are thrilled to have so many incredible projects which are expected to help hundreds of families this year alone and many thousands more in the years to come.
And of course, we are grateful for the on-going support of our major sponsors like Duke Energy and BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina. They provide millions of dollars for our home improvement programs which help hundreds of families every year have a safer place to live.
Duke Energy supports our weatherization program and Helping Home Fund which provide services like installing carbon monoxide detectors, handrails, replacing appliances, and repairing, replacing or installing heating and air conditioning units. Thanks to their aid, hundreds of families get the home repairs they need to live in a safer home. These two programs have already helped a few hundred families this year and are expected to help many more before the end of the year. Read Daisy’s story about getting some new appliances here.
BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina has provided a few million dollars for the Healthy Homes Initiative, which provides extra funds for projects that the Duke Energy programs do not cover. Some of these projects include removing mold or pests, building stairs and ramps, replacing shower tubs with walk in showers, repairing roofs, and replacing broken windows or doors. We have done hundreds of projects this year alone and the demand continues to rise! You can read some of the success stories here.
And of course, we could not touch so many thousands of lives without the aid of our agencies! Our 34 agencies serve all 100 counties in North Carolina with services like Head Start programs, weatherization, job training and placement, basic need help, housing and transportation aid, and more. Some of our agencies are only manned by two people, others by hundreds. But no matter their size, we are grateful for all of their hard work, which results in aiding thousands of families a year. Find all of our agencies and their contact information here.
We are also proud to announce that our certification programs have already helped hundreds of professionals improve their skills! Nearly every month we have had 20 or more professionals sign up for our Case Management or Head Start Family Engagement certifications, which has allowed them to learn new skills and gain a professional certification!
We want to say a special thank you to all the organizations that support our work in small but mighty ways. First, thank you to NEW Reentry Council which helps returning citizens in Nash, Edgecombe and Wilson find housing, work, and transportation so they can restart their life after incarceration. And thank you to Larry’s Coffee which partnered with use to create NEW Grounds Coffee. Our unique coffee blend helps support the NEW Reentry Council with the sale of each bag.
We also want to thank organizations like:
These and tens of others organizations have supported our work in countless ways throughout the years. Without their support, we would not have been able to help as many people as we have.
Although we don’t usually have volunteers helping us at the state office, we still want to shoutout and thank all of the volunteers who have supported our Big Pop Up events over the months, as well as all the volunteers who support the work of our agencies. Your time and energy only magnifies all the work we try to do. Thank you!
And one last shoutout to our team who work tirelessly on so many projects it makes our heads spin! Their dedication and flexibility is what makes this organization stand.
We are grateful for all the support we’ve received so far this year and look forward to expanding our work as the year continues! Stay up to date with all of our projects by following us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, or join our newsletter! And if you would like to join our cause, consider joining the networking by becoming a member or donating.