Y15K Initiative - Understand the Need Webinar Available for Viewing
A Message from the Board
To help you learn more about the Y15K Initiative, we recently hosted two Understand the Need Zoom webinars where representatives from each group we plan to assist explained how they function to benefit our community and why they are in additional need today. Our webinar is available for viewing on our PACG YouTube channel here.
Here are more details about the organizations that we have chosen to support:
QCAIR - Quad Cities Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees
Grant Curtis, President
1. QCAIR helps immigrants and refugees become strong, productive members of the Quad City community. We do this in one of two ways: providing direct assistance or referring to other agencies as appropriate and educating the Quad City Community on the talents, skills and abilities immigrants and refugees bring to our community. We pledge to uphold the following core values which provide us with the purpose and direction for our work: Quality – Collaboration – Advocacy – Integration - Respect.
2. The donated funds will provide cash assistance to low-income immigrants and refugees in Iowa who have not received relief from the federal government and have suffered adverse impacts as a result of the Covid-19 virus. The Illinois state government has given assistance to immigrants in their state, but Iowa has not.
3. To learn more about QCAIR Inc., donate or volunteer, please visit our Facebook page QuadCityAllianceforImmigrantsandRefugees or our website www.qcair.org.
Heart of Hope
Lynda Sargent, Founder and President
1. Heart of Hope is a ministry of Hope and Healing to the Hurting, dedicated to serving the community of Rock Island and the greater Quad City area. Our vision is to revitalize Rock Island neighborhoods, provide opportunities that empower individuals to become self-sufficient, and equip future generations for success.
2. Heart of Hope is a nonprofit outreach organization solely dependent on contributions from individuals and from grant funding sources. We do not receive any state or federal funding. We are able to provide outreach-based services to those in need within our community because of the generosity of caring individuals who are able and willing to help us be the hands and feet to those in need within our neighborhoods. 19.8% of the residents in the City of Rock Island live below the national poverty rate. 38% of these residents are children under the age of 6. Another 38% are residents over the age of 60. Heart of Hope has provided food and toiletry items for over 44,000 of these residents since opening our food pantry on May 1, 2014. We have distributed over 115,000 pounds of food in 2020. We continue to see the need for food escalate. Our records show a 40% increase in food pantry visitors between June and July of this year. We had 359 visitors to our pantry in June and 504 visitors in July!
The funds we receive as part of the Y15K Initiative will mean we will be able to continue to meet this great need for food assistance within our communities. A second imminent need is the replacement of our 19-year-old, 15-passenger van for picking up the 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of food we distribute weekly. Funds would be used for both of these great needs.
3. Heart of Hope website is HOHQC | Hope & Healing | Community Service | Quad Cities.
Palomares Social Justice Center and Catalyst Kitchen
Melissa Freidhof-Rodgers
The Palomares Social Justice Center exists to help address the socio-economic needs and interests of the Floreciente neighborhood and other less empowered communities through advocacy, grassroots outreach, and culturally sensitive services:
- Collaboration and Inclusiveness
- People to People Empowerment
- Cultural Awareness and Diversity
- Equity
- Creativity (supporting a space for critical thinking and activity)
- Advocacy
Catalyst Kitchen Information:
1. The Palomares-St. John’s Catalyst Kitchen is a commercial kitchen located at St. John's Lutheran Church that neighbors can rent from the Palomares Social Justice Center. The kitchen can be rented by the hour and is an initiative to motivate our community to start a business and obtain official certification for the handling and selling of food. This space helps launch budding entrepreneurs in taking the first steps in starting their business. Brick and mortar spaces require large amounts of funding and the Catalyst Kitchen provides a space to start a food business for a reasonable cost, while providing ongoing bilingual support and mentorship. Additionally, we provide individuals with the opportunity to obtain information on the certification process (in Spanish and English), starting a business, and general information on how to cook safely following sanitation codes.
2. The funds from PACG will be used to help immigrant entrepreneurs pay for the ServSafe Food manager class and the required textbook, giving them a needed boost in taking the first step in starting a food business. With the Covid-19 pandemic we have had more immigrants wanting to start food businesses after losing their jobs and not qualifying for government assistance due to immigration status. This class is offered in Spanish and creates equal access needed to start a business. Funds may also be used to rent the kitchen for new business owners or to purchase small equipment.
3. Connect with Catalyst Kitchen on our Facebook page. Information about the Palomares Social Justice Center can be found at their website.
Cobblestone Place
Allison Ambrose, PACG President
Cobblestone is a 28-unit affordable housing building in downtown Davenport, IA. The PACG office is located there; and, we hold many of our meetings and events in community rooms in the facility. Since management has always treated us so well, we decided to offer to help the people who live at Cobblestone. We asked residents what their needs were, and the Y15K funds will help fulfill those requests. Money will provide a park bench for the outdoor yard, a dining set for the community kitchen that the smaller units use, and bus passes for residents. We are pleased that we can be "good neighbors" to those that live at Cobblestone.
View our PACG Understand the Need Webinar here.
Allison Ambrose, President
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