Here’s a little taste from a few non-profits, NOT the Tenant Resource Center. Hopefully I will have more for you throughout the week.
RAPE CRISIS CENTER
– In 2010, their volunteers and staff answered over 1,800 calls to the 24-hour crisis line – a 12% increase over 2009.
– Through July 2011, they’ve answered 1,343 calls – 19% more than the same time in 2010.
– Legal and medical accompaniments have also increased.
– – At 271 through August 2011, they’re 11% over the August 2010 number of 244
– – And 36% over the 200 they’d done by this point in 2009.
DOMESTIC ABUSE INTERVENTION SERVICES
Every year, DAIS has pretty much seen an increase in the number of people requesting shelter. 2009 was a big spike and it went down slightly in 2010, but it is likely back up in 2011. In 2005 they had three full time case managers in their shelter. They are now down to two (and that is with serving more people).
Their shelter screening now includes a lethality index so that the people who qualify for their shelter have to be in imminent danger and at risk of being killed. These are women and children who are actively being stalked, have had death threats against them and who have often been the victims of severe physical violence.
DAIS has some money from the City to put individuals and families who qualify for our shelter into hotels when the shelter is full. Because of the huge demand on shelter services, this year they instituted some additional parameters for that to try to stretch the hotel money out. (i.e. only 5 families in the hotel at a time with a stay of only 7 days). Their regular emergency shelter stay is still 30 days per stay). Even with these new conditions, the hotel money was expended by the beginning of June. Here is the waitlist data through August 29th (The number is adults and children total):
1 18 people
2 14 people
3 19 people
4 10 “”
5 11 “”
6 13 “”
7 20 “”
8 26 “”
9 30 “”
10 26 “”
11 21 “”
12 23 “”
13 24 “”
14 29 “”
15 24 “”
16 23 “”
17 31 “”
18 27 “”
19 17 “”
20 18 “”
21 18 “”
22 24 “”
23 26 “”
24 40 “”
25 39 “”
26 39 “”
27 40 “”
28 22 “”
29 29 “”
In the past when they had people on the waitlist, they would still offer them all of the other DAIS services and they would refer them to The Salvation Army. With their warming house numbers skyrocketing, that is really no longer an option. They did have a donor give them a small amount of money to be used for hotel vouchers. At this point, they are waiting to use that for the cold months so that they can try to stretch it through the end of the year.
How’d you like to be the one responsible for making those types of decisions?
SEE WARMING HOUSE SHELTER STATISTICS
I blogged about it recently, here, but they are overflowing – they serve families and children. Single women shelter is also overflowing!
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
– Waiting lists for county-funded people with crucial mental health needs are running several months to over a year, if people are lucky enough to get on a waiting list at all. Waiting lists are closed from time to time, as it is inhumane to hold out hope for services that would in actuality be years out.
– Over 20% of consumers at the Mental Health Center of Dane County’s Core program are uninsured. Although people need and want the medications that help them maintain stability in the community, they cannot afford them and there is no funding for them. So the RNs and other staff in Core have fit in the time, in addition to their direct service duties, to apply for and bring in $454,000 of free meds through PAPs and sample medications. This program is slated for a $33,267 cut so this function may not be able to continue. In other words, a “savings” of around $33,000 GPR will cost the county whatever part of the $454000+ for medications that Core cannot obtain any longer.
– At least 11 infants have died in Dane County this year due to abuse and/or neglect. FPP, an intensive safety program, serves families with children, and especially infants, at risk is slated for a cut of $100,000.
– Dane County has actually made progress in cutting jail days through its jail diversion efforts. Every person who is served in these diversion programs has an opportunity to receive drug/alcohol and mental health treatment. Success rates are high, with 50-70% of participants benefitting from treatment and not recidivating. Now, these programs are being cut due to State grant drop-offs. Fewer people will be able to use TAP, Drug Court or DART. Even the most conservative estimates put projected increased jail bed days at a minimum of 600 additional.
– More and more the Dane County Mental Health POS system has become dependent on earned revenue rather than GPR to provide needed services. As agency staff work to bring in more revenue, it is used to reduce GPR rather than grow back services that have been reduced over the past decade. POS agencies have been proud to do their part, bringing in federal government and foundation grants, being vigilant in charging those persons or entities that can pay and billing Medical Assistance and Medicare. Especially the latter (MA/MC) needs supervision and oversight. Funding for at least a bit more oversight/management has been requested for years but has not been available. Now the Mental Health Center of Dane County’s funding for oversight is being cut by $37,782 ($11,621 GPR; $26,161 revenue loss).
FOOD ISSUES/COMMUNITY ACTION COALITION
– Since 2004 CAC has more than doubled the amount of food moving through the warehouse.
– In Dane County, we have gone from serving 28 pantries/mealsites to serving 49
– In Dane County the number of household visits to food pantries has risen 78% (74,000 in 2004 to 132,000 in 2010)
– They went from distributing 1600 turkeys to 6300 turkeys at Thanksgiving and now have cut the program
– Dane County Human Services funding has been cut almost every year to now a recommended 100% reduction
– United Way Funding has stayed essentially flat
– Private grant money has come and gone but has remained fairly consistent over the years
– They have added a huge food pantry garden push to the program and now support 13 acres of food pantry gardening with donations totaling over 127,000 lbs.
OUTREACH
They just learned that their state LGBT Health grant was cut by 46%, from $42,000 to $22,000. That grant supported our one program staff person. The grant is for AODA, mental health and domestic violence information and referral, so they will now have less human and financial resources to work on those important health issues. LGBT people have much higher rates of disease in those categories than the general population.
Funding for tobacco cessation and intimate partner violence from Diverse & Resilient have ended this summer, so those programs will have to be diminished or ended. They were each $12,000 per year.
For a small agency with a couple of full time and couple of part time positions, this can mean the difference between operating or not. They provided 24,000 client contacts last year, up 20% even though we have less staff.
