Mike Wolanin | The Republic United Way of Bartholomew County President Mark Stewart takes the stage to welcome guests to the organization’s annual meeting at The Common in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, June 14, 2022.
Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center leaders dipped into reserve funds to make Christmas happy for financially challenged families amid its just-completed Angels of Love program. Family Service staff is struggling maybe more than ever to schedule a growing client list for counseling sessions, including youth battling depression, high anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
Turning Point Domestic Violence Services has seen beds remain full at its emergency shelter all year long.
And other certified United Way of Bartholomew County non-profits are facing considerable obstacles to meet current needs, according to agency leaders.
United Way of Bartholomew County President Mark Stewart said his agencies “are currently seeing a lot of people who never have had to ask for help before — and these are people across all the community’s working sectors.”
He mentioned that United Way saw really severe need amid the recession of 2008 — before he assumed the helm in 2012.
“And of course we saw it also at the height of COVID,” Stewart said of the spring and summer of 2020. “But one of the differences then was that we were able, because of that sudden need, to do a lot of effective fundraising.
“And while our donors obviously are still very generous, right now we’re not seeing the same level of giving as we saw at the height of COVID. That was something of a unique point in time.
“But we’re definitely seeing a lot of tremendous need across the social service network.”
Stewart said that ranges from food pantries to United Way clients stretching budgets for affordable housing and utilities. Even in some of the best of times, United Way figures show that a third of all families in Bartholomew County struggle to provide their own basic needs including food, shelter, and utilities.
One in five of those individuals work at least one job and still can’t make ends meet. Since most of the larger corporate campaigns such as Cummins Inc. and Columbus Regional Health and Toyota Material Handling are now in the spring, Stewart mentioned that it’s a bit too early to tell how successful the current campaign — one with a goal of topping the 2021-22 campaign of $4.1 million — might be.
“But I think we’re doing OK,” he said.
At Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center, Diane Doup, community outreach coordinator, said the same as Stewart — that people are reaching out for assistance who never have needed help beforehand. The Angels of Love program bought gifts for a record number of more than 750 children.
“But we’ve been fortunate to have received some recent donations that at least can help to cover some of that,” Doup said.
Some of the reserve funds that the agency just used for Angels of Love normally would be saved for emergency needs those in struggling households experience, according to Doup.
“We’re hoping to replenish those funds,” Doup said.
At Family Service, counselors have been “at capacity” for some time, according to Julie Miller, executive director.
“We’re trying our best to rectify that by bringing in more therapists to see more clients,” Miller said, adding that an intern was just hired. “It’s definitely been challenging. But staff has really stepped up to push themselves to their max by taking on a few more clients.”
“We’re seeing youth overwhelmed with life and school,” Miller said. “I think there also are issues with pandemic socialization persisting.
“But I think our community overall has done a really good job of breaking down the stigma of mental health help, and people have become better at recognizing when people need help and are having a challenge.”
How you can help
To donate to the campaign of the United Way of Bartholomew County: https: uwbarthco.org
