Community Resource Center: One stop shop

One way to measure the success of the Community Resource Center, said Day Manager Carol Wzorek, is that state officials have asked the center for advice about opening new service facilities.

A look at the numbers show an increase in the number of clients served on an annual basis, said Wzorek during a recent interview, but that’s not the whole picture. Much of the growth has been in the level of service the center is able to provide, she said.

Onsite, right now, are the Adams State Service Center, a WIC office, the Harry K. Foundation Baby Pantry, the Lewes Library job center and the Food Rescue, a five-day-a-week food pantry run by the resource center.

Other places are seeing the value of partnering with the center, said Wzorek.

The Community Resource Center, founded in 2011 and originally housed in the building now used for the Immanuel Shelter, has been in its Oyster House Road home since 2012. The building is owned by the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches, and the center is primarily funded through the association and the generous donations of local civic-minded groups. The work is done by volunteers.

Wzorek said the churches were helping individuals on a case-by-case basis, but LRAC members decided their money could be better used if pooled together. This is the main outreach for the area churches, she said.

The intake numbers do tell part of the story. Bennett Connelly, center vice chair, said the center was able to help 200 to 300 people the first year. Now, he said, it’s 1,000, if not more.

Connelly said the center has been successful because of the partnerships formed through the years.

The co-location of these services makes the center a one-stop shop and creates a wonderful network, he said.

The intake/helping hand process

During a tour of the facility, Connelly quickly explained the intake process. He said the volunteers don’t ask for personal information, only what a person’s needs are and how the center can help.

He said a client works with a case manager to find out exactly how the center can best help their situation, which could be anything from helping with the payment of bills to filling out an online job application.

“It’s a thorough process,” he said.

After the initial intake, Connelly said the people will be asked if they have food or basic cold-weather gear. It’s a rare opportunity for volunteers to touch the lives of people who need it, he said.

Wzorek said many of the folks who come through the center’s doors don’t have computer skills or appropriate clothing and don’t know how to approach a job interview. The center is a place where people can come in and, by the time they walk out, feel like they made a difference in their lives.

Preventing homelessness

Wzorek said one of the center’s main goals is to prevent homelessness. She said many people are paying their bills on a month-to-month basis, but, she said, one unplanned expense could mean unpaid bills, which could lead to no electricity or the voiding of a rental lease.

“All you need is one crisis,” she said.

Wzorek said since the beginning, the center has been helping families and individuals living in the Cape Henlopen School District avoid homelessness, but last year it received a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that allowed it to spread the service countywide. This grant offers eligible families facing eviction a one-time financial assistance gift, and then families receive case management for one year to address budgeting and ways to prevent falling behind in the future, said Wzorek.

The center was able to help 60 families. It’s an amount of money that can make a significant difference, said Wzorek, adding that the center has been given the same $50,000 grant for 2017.

Connelly said HUD gave the center the grant for the second year after an independent audit of the center’s finances showed the money was spent as intended.

The center is not a day center

The one thing the Community Resource Center is not is a day center for the homeless.

Connelly said the center used to allow people to stay inside during the day, but it began to burden the center’s resources. He also said some homeless people have mental health disabilities that the center has no staff to support.

He said what happens now is in severe weather conditions, the center will provide funding for Immanuel Shelter to be open.

Wzorek also said the kitchen facilities are not set up to prepare food for many people. “We don’t have an industrial kitchen,” she said.

Wzorek said the center does offer homeless adults the ability to shower and use laundry facilities by appointment on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Sussex County Homeless Coalition

The Community Resource Center has been working to support homeless people and prevent homelessness in the Cape Region for almost a decade. The January 2015 formation of the Sussex County Homeless Coalition means there’s now a group looking to make those services countywide.

Susan Kent is the executive director of the coalition. It’s membership includes representatives from organizations including, but not limited to, the Immanuel Shelter, the Community Resource Center, the ACE Peer Resource Center in Seaford and Love INC of Mid-Delmarva.

In Sussex, Kent said, the big problem, up until now, is that many homeless people are not getting into the system because there aren’t enough case managers. She said there are federal resources available to help homeless people from institutions like HUD, but statistics are required to apply for those funds.

“Everything is data driven,” she said, estimating that on any given winter night in Sussex County there are 90 people in a Code Purple shelter.  “If you don’t have the data, you don’t get the funds.”

Kent said the coalition has been meeting monthly, learning what is needed for additional funding. HUD applications are not secret, she said. There just needs to be an understanding of what grants will fund and how to set up programs to meet those requirements.

There’s been a lot of education, she said, and now is the time to create a strategic plan moving forward.

Wzorek said the center’s involvement with the coalition has been valuable. Information is discussed at these meetings that broadens the center’s ability to serve that it would not otherwise not know about, she said.