February Impact Grant recipients announced

posted on March 21, 2013

HELP Legal Assistance
HELP provides high quality legal services, including advice, brief service, and full representation in court and administrative proceedings, to low=income and senior clients in civil matters involving basic human needs. This translates into services to victims of domestic violence, tenants living in substandard housing and workers who need assistance to preserve their wages from unlawful garnishments and attachments.

HELP's services benefit over 2,000 clients per year, however; the digital dictation equipment used to service clients is no longer functioning properly. The Impact Grant from the Community Foundation will allow HELP to purchase a new system, with four dictation recorders and a transcription kit. The new equipment will assist HELP's advocates as they continue to provide quality legal services to low-income clients in the most efficient manner possible.

People Uniting Neighbors and Churches (PUNCH)  
PUNCH serves the Davenport neighborhood that extends east from Harrison St. to Farnam St. and south from Locust to 12th St. One of their programs is the Elementary School Backpack Program, which provides food at the end of each month for low income and needy children residing in the PUNCH neighborhood. The Elementary School Backpack Program works with Davenport high school students, and Jefferson and Madison elementary school teachers. The high school students will the backpacks and the teachers make the referrals and provide the backpacks each month.

The Impact Grant from the Community Foundation will allow PUNCH to fill 20 backpacks for 6 months. Families tend to run low on food at the end of each month, so these backpacks will prevent these children from going hungry. The overall program goal is to fill 75 backpacks each month.