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Kids, Teens Get First Dibs on United Way Funds
Children and youth hold a special place in Lorain County United Way's mission. The number and types of services, which we fund, speak to how much their care, development, and safety are valued: To that list could be added other services whose purpose is to keep children safe and secure, or which provide family crisis intervention, or which strengthen families and assist in meaningful childhood development.
How important are children and youth to us? Very! In many ways, we are the voice of needy youngsters. Youngsters, whose service numbers are escalating even beyond those of adults. And if the services we are funding for their parents are considered critical--which they are--then the children services we are funding are all the more so because they are more vulnerable or have their own set of needs.
Talking to children who are benefiting from having an adult as a Big Brother or Big Sister will confirm that. When I speak to program participants, the positive affect this mentoring program is having can be seen in improved school grades, positive behaviors and attitudes, and are mirrored in the kids' smiles and comments. They use such terms as "my best friend", "someone who really listens", "my role model". Those are some special descriptors, indeed.
Ditto goes for the boys and girls being served at Save Our Children. United Way's fund distribution volunteers, who conduct site visits at this program, refer to this program as a gem because of what is accomplished with project participants. Outcomes seen in program participants best tell the story:
Participants display academic improvement and improved social skills. They demonstrate strong leadership skills as well as motivation for self improvement. They evidence ability to adapt to the teamwork concept, while also exhibiting high degrees of self-confidence and self-esteem. In conjunction with improved school attendance, their academic records show improved test scores and an appreciation for the correlation between schooling and future life plans. In their non-school lives they show less interests in negative behaviors and greater interest in becoming-as many participants have shared with me- "the best person that they can be".
Those are impressive results!
No different, though, than ones seen at our other youth programs. Moreover, they are outcomes which we expect for the funds we provide. Because, if any investment is important and needs to take root, it is the one we make in our children. For that reason alone, the United Way campaign is important to the Lorain community. Especially for those children who lack for the basics, or who are in danger of being left behind without opportunity and hope.
If able to speak for themselves on what they need from adults, our youth would likely choose thoughts akin to those in Mary Korzan's poem When You Thought I Wasn't Looking:
When you thought I wasn't looking, you displayed by first report, and I wanted another.
When you thought I wasn't looking, you fed a stray cat, and I thought it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn't looking, you put your arm around me, and I felt loved.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw tears come from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes thing hurt - but that it's all right to cry.
When you thought I wasn't looking, you smiled, and it made me want to look that pretty too.
When you thought I wasn't looking, you cared, and I wanted to be everything you wanted me to be.
When you thought I wasn't looking - I looked - and wanted to say thanks for all the things you did when you thought I wasn't looking. As printed in The Chronicle-Telegram 10/18/08
Who Are the People Using United Way Funded Services
Yesterday, following a presentation, I was asked to describe "who are the people using United Way funded services?" My response was "look in the mirror...they look like you and me." That has always been the case. It is even more evident now because the numbers being served by our funded programs have increased so dramatically and when those numbers come from all segments of the Lorain County population and demographics. This is especially true in those services having to do with basic needs such as hot meals, shelter, and emergency type assistance. The need for food, which is addressed by Second Harvest Food Bank, offers a prime example. In service results already reported to the government and shared with the community, their 2006 comprehensive Hunger Study referenced disconcerting feedback from consumers who shared the circumstances which led them to a pantry, shelter, or hot meal program. In order that the degree and intensity of the need could be categorized and the challenges confronting people could be put in their starkest terms, the information gathering survey used "degrees of hunger". Food security means people have access to enough food for an active, healthy life: (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) an ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Food insecurity means limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited and uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Food insecurity with hunger means the involuntary state of not being able to afford food resulting in prolonged absence of food that produces discomfort, weakness, and pain. My reading on that last Survey data has: - 78% of all Second Harvest Food Bank clients being food insecure
- 36% being food insecure with hunger
- 28% of those being served being under 18 years of age and 6% being under 5 years old
- Combine that with the fact that among all households with children, 75% are food insecure with 42% of those experiencing hunger.
Distressing data indeed! Especially when choices people are required to make get factored into an eat-no eat dilemma: - 39% of those served have to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel
- 39% have to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage
- 30% have to choose between paying for food and paying for medical care or medicine
- 46% of programs having to turn clients away due to lack of food to distribute
A recent conversation with Second Harvest Executive Director, Juliana Chase-Morefield indicates that the next collection and analysis of data will be even more alarming. She reports that during this year's second quarter there has been a 20% increase in individuals needing assistance . This represents 5,000 people a week with 45% of those being children under 18 years of age and 11% being age 60+. This means that at the current rate Second Harvest will distribute 4 million pounds of food. In comparison, distribution in 2005 was 2.6 million pounds.
However, that 4 million pounds is predicated on food donations and other support, both of which are challenged by today's economics. Which is why this year's United Way campaign is so important to those in need and why our theme "Live United" is so relevant. That theme is our challenge to ourselves and to the community to do all we can to address the critical needs in the community, none being more critical than food.
It is a challenge that must be looked straight in the eye. One that can not be dodged. As I told the gentleman who asked about the kinds of people being served by United Way funded services: "Look in the mirror". In hunger's case that is people we know, people who never thought they would be in a hot meal line, people who have more month left than money or no money at all. As printed in The Chronicle-Telegram 10/13/08
Guardian Angelship
Parental wisdom given over the years-and still heard passed on to our children and grandchildren-has it that "the best prizes often come in the smallest packages". The same can be said of other things, as in certain smaller sized organizations where the quality and dimension of the good accomplished eclipse the organization's budget size.
The United Way funded Lorain County Volunteer Guardianship Program (VGP) is one of those programs. So much so that I believe this gem of a human service program could rightly be renamed "guardian angelship".
This dynamic organization has been providing care to the most vulnerable population since 1993. It is a population easily forgotten by society: indigent and incompetent Lorain residents over 40 years old who reside in nursing homes and adult care facilities who have no one to make medical or financial decisions for them. It is a population among the most at risk, even oppressed, in todays busy and "big issue" society. Also, one that could easily fall through the cracks and become invisible except for the service VGP provides.
VGP has a straight forward mission - to ensure that senior's rights are protected and that they have the quality of life anyone else deserves. VGP fulfills its mission by providing legal guardians who serve as caring decision-makers when no less restrictive alternative is available. VGP trains reference-checked volunteers to deal with aging and mental health issues, legal aspects of guardianship, ethical decision-making, and quality of life issues. Volunteers become advocates and surrogate family for frail seniors who are at risk of joining the community's forgotten because they cannot care for themselves or advocate on their own behalf. Volunteers take responsibility for health-related decisions. They make any and all decisions regarding the physical person, e.g. nursing home placement, medical procedures, end of life choices, etc.
And while it is sad commentary on human nature, VGP volunteers sometimes are required to protect their vulnerable and voiceless wards from family member neglect or greed. In those instances volunteers become the ward's advocate to ensure proper treatment and freedom from abuse and neglect.
The characteristics that identify VGP's service population are well defined. Clients are 40 years old and over. They can be indigent (on Medicaid) with no family, or have financial resources but be without a family, and are incompetent. A Statement of Expert Evaluation by a physician or psychiatrist, an assessment by the program director, and then a final assessment by the Probate Court Investigator determine competency.
Guardianship is only awarded when all other alternatives have been exhausted. Since guardianship relinquishes a person of all their rights, the VGP assures all other options for the person have been attempted or ruled out. The goal is not to obtain as many wards as possible, but to provide guardianship services to those who absolutely need it and have no other options left.
Anyone who has had the need to convince a parent to leave their own home for a nursing home facility or has been required to make that decision for them can speak to how white knuckle an experience that can be. Discerning what is in the best interest of an incompetent person is a similar challenge for VGP because a person's rights and dignity are at stake, as well as their safety and protection.
VGP evaluates each guardianship scrupulously, with protection being a major consideration. In too many cases, wards are being financially exploited and neglected by family members or acquaintances. Guardianship allows for taking legal action in protecting the ward and terminating any exploitation. The outcome for every ward should be that their situation after guardianship is clearly an improvement from the neglected and exploited lifestyle they were enduring.
Translated this means rights are protected and needs met. All of which takes a special person to accomplish.
Volunteer Guardianship's staff and 28 volunteers are just that. However, more hands and caring hearts are always needed.
Needed to make a commitment to watch over the welfare of the most helpless in our county.
Sounds like "guardian angelship" to me.
Volunteer Guardianship Program of Lorain County can be reached (440) 934-3613. As printed in The Chronicle-Telegram 10/05/08
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