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Ministries needs volunteers

BY NATHASHA ASHE
SALISBURY POST

Last year, the shelter served more than 71,700 individuals-- approximately 196 people per day-- through its crisis assistance programs. A total of 44,536 meals were served from the soup kitchen; 8,432 people stayed the night in the shelter; clothing was provided to 3,821 men, women and children; 3,001 were helped with their utilities; 773 with their rent; and 530 calls were received by Dial Help volunteers, who provide information and a "listening ear."

Dianne Scott, Helping Ministries executive director, told board members earlier this week during the agency's annual meeting that committed and faithful volunteers are the "the heart and soul" of the organization, and she would like to see that continue.

The agency is, indeed, a volunteer-run and driven organization, with more than 2,000 volunteers and contributors listed in its database. In the past year, those volunteers have contributed 28,817 hours to help  meet the needs of this community.

But Scott says even more volunteers are needed to serve the growing demand of people who seek services from the agency.

Helping Ministries volunteers operate crisis assistance programs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

The overall Helping Ministries' staff includes eight full-time and eight part-time, who prepare volunteers for client services and who are always available when volunteers are present.

The agency is normally equipped to handle 20 to 25 people seeking help. But lately, with the repercussions of five plant closings in Rowan County and disaster victims fleeing from eastern NorthCarolina, agency workers are seeing 40 people per day.

"More and more people are seeking our services," Scott said. "If we continue to see that many people in the mornings, then we know we need to extend our hours.

"With limited volunteers, we also are unable to provide those who seek assistance the quality time we think they need, because our volunteers are stretched so thin."

The agency not only provides an overnight shelter and soup kitchen, but a food pantry, a clothing center, Dial Help, and financial assistance for those who qualify and need help with rent, utilities, medicine, and other necessities.

Scott said she would like to see those programs operate all day, five days a week. With three or four additional volunteers working between 1-4 p.m., Monday through Friday, more people can be helped, Scott said.

"But the only way we could do that is to have volunteers in the afternoons," she said.

Volunteer time is valuable. According to the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, the hourly dollar value of volunteer time is $14.30. If volunteers at Helping Ministries were paid for their efforts last year, it would have cost the agency $412,083. If the agency had purchased the 2,850 bags and boxes of donated clothing and the food, it would have cost an additional $181,000.

Out of the 44,536 meals prepared and served from Helping Ministries' recently renovated kitchen, 27,669 were noon meals and 16,867 were evening shelter meals. Ninety-nine percent of the food served was donated.

Annually, the Salisbury Pot Office and First Baptist Church conduct large, separate food drives, which bring in about 19,000 pounds of food. A food-of-the-month collection is also conducted by 65 churches.

"We have some wonderful volunteers. We couldn't operate without them," Scott said. "Those food drives are most helpful, but they still don't cover the demand. We're looking for more big food drives."

Scott said the agency is constantly challenged to do more with less and do better with less.

Though the Helping Ministries' budget is in excess of a million dollar operation with program expenditures last year at $262,564 and a budget of $629,200, there is still a need, Scott says.

The number of people coming for food from the food pantry has increased from from 4,321 in 1996 to 6,061 in 1998. The need to fill   medicine prescriptions also increased. In 1996, 323 individuals sought help with their medicine; 561 did so last year.

Scott said the overnight stays in the shelter also increased tremendously.

This past fiscal year, 670 people stayed in the overnight shelter-- totalling 8,432 nights. The shelter is open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and more volunteers are needed to prepare the morning and evening meals, help with homework, laundry and help guests check-in and -out.

"The overnight shelter right now is seeing 50 to 53 people, with current volunteer staff helping. We are pretty much scheduled to deal with 25 people," Scott said, adding that 40 percent of those who seek refuge in the overnight shelter are veterans.

Staff became concerned with the increasing number of veterans from Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point and other areas who came to stay overnight -- sometimes all day at the shelter--  while waiting to be admitted into inpatient programs at the VA.

Once Scott contacted Hefner VAMedical Center officials, an outpatient Screening Crisis Intervention Team program was organized.

Now, veterans who are waiting on VA inpatient services stay in the Helping Ministries' shelter, as long as they participate in the   outpatient screening program, which  finds them daily activities to occupy their time.

Each morning at 7, they check out of the shelter and catch a city bus with VA-purchased passes. They participate in programs at the VA all day. In the evenings, they head back to the shelter, where they retire for the evening. This schedule lasts until they are admitted into various inpatient programs at the VA.

The response has been tremendous, Scott said.

But even with the agreement, veterans add to the volume of people at the shelter, which means more volunteer help is needed in the shelter.

In the mornings, two people help prepare breakfast, and one performs check-out duties for all shelter guests.

More shelter volunteers  would provide help to mothers who have to get their children up, dressed and off to school. Currently, there are nine children staying in the shelter.

Some of those parents qualify to participate in Rowan Helping Ministries' Eagle's Nest I transitional units for single parents with one or two children.

Since November 1998, 17 families have been considered for RowanCounty's first transitional housing complex, but only five families have actually participated in the 18-month program,  which provides a transition for single parents and helps them to become more self-sufficient.

Scott said the number of participants is low because parents either have too many children in their family for the size of the units or don't want to take part in the budget counseling, parenting classes or other requirements for the program.

"Some just don't want to answer to anyone," Scott says. "But the parents we have in the units now are great parents."

Plans are under way for the construction of larger units for Eagle's Nest II.

Scott also predicted that Helping Ministries will feel the effects the devastation caused by Hurricane Floyd, the worse natural disaster in North Carolina history.

More people who usually donate food, clothing and dollars to Helping Ministries and other area nonprofit organizations are donating to disaster victims in eastern North Carolina.

"It's understandably so, with everything we know is going on. We understand,"Scott said. "A lot of those people have lost everything. We are seeing people from eastern North Carolina who have relatives here, staying in area hotels, and can't go back. They're getting food and clothing from us.

"We understand people are giving to those hurricane victims," Scott added. "But we're going to be affected too."