Stillwater, OKLA. - As Stillwater celebrates “United Way Sunday” today, two of the twenty five local agencies are contemplating new facilities that will change the way they serve this community. Stillwater Domestic Violence and Judith Karman Hospice are both beginning building fund drives.
Stillwater Domestic Violence is using a $50-thousand dollar planning grant from the Reynolds Foundation to study the feasibility of a new and expanded shelter for battered women and their children.
According to Domestic Violence Board President Linda Anthony, “The sad truth is that we’ve run out of room for women and children with no safe place to go.” Domestic Violence served more than 24-hundred men, women and children last year despite losing nearly $90,000 in state funding due to budget cuts in the Department of Human Services.
Domestic Violence won the Stillwater United Way Bennett Basore Award this year for its plans for the future. Planning is an important component of the annual United Way allocations review according to United Way Executive Director Shelley Ricker.
“Most of our donors in Stillwater recognize and appreciate the hours our Allocations Committee spends reviewing each agency’s funding request,” says Ricker. “It totals more than 200 man hours of work each year. It’s what you’d do yourself if you had the time and resources to make sure your donations are really doing what matters.”
Every year, an Allocations Committee member physically inspects each agency and meets with the Director. Then each agency makes a presentation to the entire allocations committee. They are required to provide detailed information on the participation of their board members in actual agency oversight, the number of volunteers used by the agency, the number of people helped, the status of any unpaid accounts, salaries of all staff members and planning for the future. Requests for increased funding are weighed against the plans of every other agency and identified needs for service in Stillwater.
Richmond Elementary Principal Gay Washington served as Allocations Chair this year and says “There are always surprises. The agencies tell us about developing trends that show how Stillwater is changing.”
“We are able to use incentives like the Bennett Basore Award to encourage them to develop solutions through advance planning as well as emergency and capital/technical grants to help them meet unexpected challenges,” says Washington.
Judith Karmen Hospice has acquired land to build a Hospice House in Stillwater. Since 19…, Hospice has been the only non-profit end-of-life care serving the Stillwater area. Last year, 350 people were touched by their work offering physical, emotional and spiritual home care for terminally ill patients and their families.
The new Hospice House will address the growing number of patients for whom home care is not an option. In some cases, there are no family members locally or the case requires services just below hospital care yet more than can be provided in a private home.
“It’s really unfortunate that despite a campaign goal of $740,000, not a single agency will get 100 percent of the funding they requested this year,” says Washington. “The actual requested funding from the agencies totaled almost $250,000 more.”
Ricker agrees that the allocations process, while a strength of the local United Way is very hard on first time Allocations Committee members.
“They are shocked at how much the agencies do with each dollar and at how low the salaries are at the agencies,” says Ricker. “Every committee member wishes there were more dollars to go around, but we have to be realistic about what Stillwater can contribute to United Way in light of the many worthy causes in this community.”
The Stillwater Area United Way Campaign was launched with the 10th Annual Day of Caring on September 22 and runs through November 22. The Day of Caring featured 411 volunteers on teams from 37 local firms. They completed projects worth nearly $200,000 for United Way agencies and their clients.
United Way has raised $13-million in the past 53 years in Stillwater. Ninety-nine percent of every dollar raised here stays in Stillwater serving individuals in this community. This year, donors can give online at www.stillwaterunitedway.org as well as by check, pledge card and participation in United Way Events. Groups wishing to schedule programs about United Way services or showings of the local United Way video can call 377-2161.
