WIthout CDBG funding, Maria Droste Counseling Services would not be able to serve the ever growing demand of persons seeking and needing quality behavioral health and substance abuse counseling who have low-moderate income as defined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. This funding also supports our efforts to provide case management services to many clients who cannot access this particular service in other area agencies due to financial constraints. With CDBG, we are serving those who would not receive these services elsewhere. Consistently, our participants report an improved ability to handle stress, navigate relationships at work and at home more successfully, and not relapse into old thought and behavior patterns that no longer serve them. We see improvements in our clients' overall well-being across psychological, physical, and social domains; a better ability to cope with financial pressures; the ability to return to work and function at an improved rate during work. Overall, all our participants' quality of life has improved in some cases dramatically. Maria Droste is ready to serve clients remotely during the COVID-19 crisis. For updates, please go to their website at: https://mariadrostecounseling.com/. QATV's Joe Catalano recently caught up with Maria Droste's Executive Director, Michael Shanahan for an interview. Please see below.
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We are promoting participation in the 2020 Census as Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocations are based on formulas influenced by Census data including population, people in poverty, and characteristics of housing units. Justification for CDBG projects are also supported by Census data. Therefore, the more accurate the Census data is by community members participating and making themselves counted, the more effective the CDBG funding is to improving communities across the country. If you have not yet done so, please respond to the Census now.
To understand how the CDBG allocation process works, please see the video below:
In 1979, Manet Community Health Center opened their first practice site, located in Houghs Neck. The City of Quincy, Department of Planning, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding in the amount of $339,000 and community fundraising efforts made this possible.
Today, Manet delivers care to more than 17,000 patients in over 62,000 unduplicated annual visits, provides services that are reflective of the languages and cultures of the communities it serves and offers a full array of services and programs for infants, children, adolescents, adults, and seniors. Over the years, CDBG has continued to play a role in the Manet Community Health Center story assisting in various center expansion and renovation projects. In the past 20 years, CDBG has funded 15 projects for Manet which total just over $1,000,000.00. Manet has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis response. Please see the story in the Patriot Ledger: https://www.patriotledger.com/news/20200412/as-coronavirus-spreads-quincys-manet-community-health-steps-up We applaud Manet's leadership amid the COVID-19 crisis. For updates, please go to: https://www.manetchc.org/coronavirus-updates/ Without CDBG funding, Father Bill's & MainSpring (FBMS) would not be able to provide high-level services and housing placement assistance that are offered to every veteran who is served at Father Bill’s Place. CDBG funding is critical to supporting the full continuum of resources and ensuring everyone who put on the uniform has a safe, stable place to call home. FBMS’s top priority is ensuring all homeless individuals have a safe place to stay at night and can be connected quickly to housing and services that will prevent or end their homelessness. Veterans have been a priority population since the agency’s inception, and we continue to seek veteran-specific resources, partner with veteran-serving agencies, and provide a preference for homeless veterans in many of our housing projects. In the last five years FBMS transitioned to a triage approach and has instituted coordinated entry to ensure the most vulnerable individuals have priority for the housing assistance they need. We manage a By Name List of all homeless veterans, and review it bi-weekly to ensure veterans are housed as quickly as possible. During this grant period, FBMS and the Veteran Subcommittee of the Continuum of Care implemented a veteran rehousing challenge – Homes for the Brave - that aimed to house 16 veterans in 16 weeks, which was double the number of veterans typically moving into housing in that amount of time. We are pleased to report we exceeded our goal and placed 18 veterans into housing during the challenge period. Listen to Mike's housing journey here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPCUMdTwkNw Please note: The above CDBG report was written prior the COVID-19 crisis. For up to date information on the FBMS response to COVID-19, please visit: https://helpfbms.org/support/coronavirus/ Without CDBG funding, Quincy Community Action Programs, Inc.’s Southwest Community Food Center would not be able to deliver the same high-quality, integrated services for those most in need in our community. The CDBG funding is used toward the salaries for the hard-working, dedicated staff at the Food Center. At its satellite location in Quincy’s Brewer’s Corner location at 1 Copeland St, the SWCFC is staffed full-time 8:30-4:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with evening hours on Wednesday from 10:30-6:30 to accommodate our working families. The Food Center also hosts a nutrition education program, “Tasty Tuesday” one Tuesday a month from 1:00-3:00, demonstrating how to make easy, nutritious meals with the items from the Food Center. CDBG funding allows the SWCFC to be open five days a week, where both staff and volunteers prepare food orders (consisting of approximately one week’s worth of meals), welcome new clients, and prepare materials for one-on-one meetings with new and existing clients. Clients receive one food order a month, but they can visit the Food Center more than once a month if there is a real financial hardship, i.e. no income or significantly reduced income. In addition, staff works with clients to enroll them in the SNAP program and to make sure SNAP recipients are up to date with their recertification paper work and are aware of SNAP program changes. Through QCAP’s comprehensive intake process, clients also receive referrals to other QCAP programs and community resources. In addition to the services we provide at 1 Copeland St in Quincy, the SWCFC provides a monthly Pop Up Food Pantry at QCAP’s Head Start facility at 22 Pray Street. We serve over 100 low-income families per month with their monthly food order through our Head Start location. These families would not otherwise be able to receive food services due to transportation and time constraints. This is a valuable service to the low-income families in Quincy that is made possible with the support of CDBG funding. At the SWCFC, we are committed to providing nutritional food in our food orders, but we are aware that some families need support in understanding how to fully utilize these nutritious ingredients in their daily cooking. Tasty Tuesday is QCAP’s nutrition education and cooking demonstration workshop, which continues to draw a monthly audience to our SWCFC. In these workshops, the Food Center Coordinator provides meal preparation instruction using the ingredients typically available in the SWCFC food orders. The goal is to give clients the tools to plan budget-friendly weekly menus, empowering them to make healthy meals for their families, and instilling in their children the importance of good eating habits. Clients leave these workshops excited to use the ingredients in their food orders having learned valuable nutritional information. Without CDBG funding, QCAP would not be able to sustain this important workshop series. To be able to provide the services we do at SWCFC, QCAP relies on over 135 volunteers, logging in more than 4300 hours in FY19 to manage the volunteer work at the Food Center. Many volunteers fulfill their Community Service requirements at the Food Center as a condition of eligibility for Transitional Assistance for Families with Dependent Children and/or SNAP benefits. Volunteering at SWCFC provides individuals with an opportunity to build work-related skills such as organizational and time-management skills, professional behavior, customer service, and office management skills—skills that can help them transition to employment. SWCFC volunteers that are looking for employment are referred to QCAP’s Financial REACH Center to support their job search. In FY19, one of QCAP’s regular volunteers transitioned into full-time employment in a social-service field. In addition, QCAP’s SWCFC is a partner in the City of Quincy’s Summer YouthWorks Program and hosts 3 Quincy youth workers each summer for a paid 8-week internship. With the support of the Food Center Coordinator, these Quincy Public School students develop a work-based learning plan and work to achieve their goals through their summer employment at the Food Center. QCAP also collaborates with UMASS Boston’s Human Services Program and Quincy College to provide credit-baring internships for college students. Many high school and middle-school students also volunteer to fulfill their community service volunteer requirements in order to graduate. These opportunities provide students with a way to apply academic-based learning to a social services environment and to connect and give back to their community. CDBG funding remains a critical resource to the operations of QCAP’s Southwest Community Food Center. Without it, staff hours could be reduced, which would negatively impact our ability to provide the much needed services described above to our clients and community. This narrative was written prior to the COVID-19 crisis. In April, QCAP has seen a dramatic increase in clients. If you are in need of help or can help, please go to: https://www.qcap.org/important-covid-19-update-from-qcap/. |