Women's Giving Circle of Cumberland County embraces community commitment
Staff photos by James Robinson
Fourth-grader Lyman Santos talks with teacher Margaretta Kelly at the start of the after-school program at St. Ann's Neighborhood Youth Center on Thursday. The center is among five community programs awarded grants by the Women's Giving Circle of Cumberland County.
Staff photo by James Robinson
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Mya Robinson works on her homework during the after-school program at St. Ann's Neighborhood Youth Center.
Regular members - all women who live in the county - are asked to commit to paying $550 in annual dues for at least three years at a time.
But the nonprofit group has grown steadily in five years of existence as women are drawn by its mission - helping homeless and poor women and children in the county by giving to programs that support them.
Now more than 130 members strong, the group has given grants of $175,340 to local programs in its first four years.
Thursday night, it announced its 2013 grants - $58,050 to five programs focusing on supportive services for homeless women and children through crisis management and life management priorities. The grants will bring the group's total gifts in five years to $233,390.
Directors of recipient programs said the grants are huge helps to programs that typically operate on shoestring budgets and that have seen funding sources dry up in recent years.
"It's very important," said Denise Giles, director of Cumberland Interfaith Hospitality Network, which provides housing and support programs for homeless people.
An earlier grant from the Giving Circle allowed Giles' agency to build a wrought-iron fence around the Bonnie Doone property where its administrative offices and its Ashton Woods housing area are located. Ashton Woods includes 20 two-bedroom homes in which homeless families can live for up to two years.
Before the fence was erected, "we were having a huge number of trespassers and prostitutes" coming onto the property, Giles said. The housing area includes a playground but it was not safe for kids to go there. Giles believes the agency's offices would have been broken into.
With the fence, "we've had zero issues with those kinds of security problems," she said. "Children are able to play on the playground."
The agency would not have been able to afford the fence on its own, she said.
This year, the agency is receiving a grant of $20,000 to go toward renovation of its day center. By reworking the space, the Cumberland Interfaith Hospitality Network can expand its emergency shelter program, Giles said. The agency has commitments from other financial sources that have agreed to match the Giving Circle grant and from contractors who will donate labor and materials.
"This is a catalyst," Giles said. "Without this, we wouldn't have that. We're so excited."
Other recipients of Giving Circle grants this year include:
Better Health of Cumberland County, awarded $25,000 to provide medication, preventive products, medical supplies, eye exams and glasses, and other services to medically underserved homeless women and children.
The Salvation Army, awarded $6,050 to provide emergency food vouchers for clients and to send homeless children to a weeklong summer camp.
St. Ann's Neighborhood Youth Center, awarded $4,000 to provide food and fuel for an after-school program that serves homeless and poor children.
The Fayetteville Police Department, awarded $3,000 to provide materials for workshops for victims of domestic violence and rape.
Esther Patterson, director of the after-school program at St. Ann's, said the Giving Center grant is a tremendous help for a program that gets by on $38,000 to $40,000 a year. The program provides tutoring and hot meals two afternoons a week to about four dozen students from nearby T.C. Berrien and Walker-Spivey elementary schools. It also has a weeklong summer program for the kids.
Patterson said nearly all the students in the program passed their end-of-grade tests last year. She said school personnel gave a lot of credit for that to the after-school tutoring, done by volunteers who are retired teachers.
"We were really proud of that," she said.
Money is always tight, Patterson said. "Every little bit helps."
This year, the Giving Circle is looking to increase its numbers by offering "junior" memberships to women age 35 and younger. They would be charged annual dues of $275 - half the regular cost - and would have to commit to just a year at a time.
"This membership will enable young women to learn more about our community's needs, the granting process, and the importance of collaboration and leveraging to solve community needs," the group said in a news release.
Lucy Jones, chairwoman of the Giving Circle's marketing committee, said the group's members are a cross-section of women from various parts of the county.
"It's just people who have hearts," she said. "It's a great way to get involved in the community and to see the impact of your gifts and to feel good about how you're investing in the community."
Staff writer Catherine Pritchard can be reached at pritchardc@fayobserver.com or 486-3517.
