|
|
News Archives
| Partnership
with Bike Athens - March 2010 |
The
Ark has partnered with Bike Athens' Bicycle Recycling Program (BR P)
to provide bikes to those in need. BRP will provide, upon
request, bicycle(s) to The Ark. These bicycles will be used
by Ark clients who need assistance commuting to and from work (employmnet
will be verified by The Ark). Each bicycle will include a
helmet, lock and lights and will have passed BRP's inpsection
process.
|
|
Partnership with Health Solutions - October 2007 |
Nearly 1,096 elderly and disabled neighbors with
chronic conditions have been helped through The Ark’s Medicine
Assistance Program (MAP). Established in 2000, MAP assisted neighbors
applying to pharmaceutical companies for free medication. The typical
MAP client had an on-going need for numerous pharmaceuticals. Often
these were individuals who had been working and were then struck with
a serious medical condition and subsequent bills for drugs.
With the advent of Medicare D, however, the number
of people needing such assistance has fallen below the level which
would justify the cost of MAP as a separate Ark initiative. The
functions of MAP have been taken over by Health Solutions, a local
non-profit organization which specializes in helping individuals
receive medication through the pharmaceutical companies.
To be viable, Health Solutions charges each client
$30 for administration and $12 per prescription per quarter. This
means there are some neighbors who still cannot afford the services.
To fill that gap, The Ark Executive Board authorized an experimental
program of cooperation with Health Solutions to pay the costs for the
neediest individuals. The initial results from this new partnership
are promising. The Ark can continue to provide medical assistance to
the neediest individuals with chronic conditions without maintaining
the administrative structure needed to operate the program.
|
|
Partnership with Interfaith Hospitality Network - August
2007 |
The Ark does not provide establishment money to homeless persons at
this time. Because most shelters allow people to remain for an
extended period, they have time to gather the money needed to set
themselves up in an apartment. The Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN),
however, operates differently. Shelter is provided in the
facilities of participating congregations; the stay in any one
congregation is one week. The program is necessarily short term,
with an average total stay of 41 days in the program. In many
cases, six weeks is too short a time for the family to accumulate the
means to move into its own housing. If they are able to find
decent housing with rent that is equal to less than half of their
income, they still need to pay a deposit, sometimes equal to more than
a month's rent. Rent and deposits, along with startup costs
means that they must stay longer in shelter to save up enough to move
out, preventing IHN from serving other families who are in need of
shelter. This is where The Ark's initiative comes in.
The Ark in partnership with IHN will give $200 toward the first
initial rent payment families in the IHN program that has been
referred to us by the IHN Director.
|
|
Recipient of Jackson EMC Operation Roundup Grant - June 2007 |
On June 19th, the Jackson EMC Foundation funded by members of Jackson
EMC through the Operation Round Up program presented The Ark with a
$12,000 Foundation grant. Grant funds will be used to increase
housing assistance per case and the Noah Fund assistance to senior
citizens who live on low, fixed incomes, and begin a program providing
initial rent payment assistance to homeless clients in partnership
with the Interfaith Hospitality Network.
The Jackson EMC Foundation is funded by “spare change” donated through
Operation Round Up, a program that rounds up monthly electric bills to
the next dollar amount. More than 90 percent of the cooperative’s
members participate in the program, contributing an
average of $6 per
year to the Foundation.
|
|
