“We are most grateful to the United Way to be able to correct this dangerous situation!” stated Kathy Miller, Hungarian Hall.

An important part of this program is just building relationships with the mentees. The mentor stated that the first few sessions are always rough and the mentees resent the mentor. He recalled that one day the mentees were making fun of his shoes, and he began to pick on himself a little bit and in turn, gained their respect. He says now, he often gets texts or phone calls from the mentees whenever they need someone to talk to.

The mentor shared the story of a student athlete who was arrested at the age of 15 for stealing a vehicle. He did not have a good home life, and both parents have been in and out of jail.  The student had also been in the foster system for a long time, but he was recently taken in by his best friend’s family. After participating in the program for three years, he now has a 3.89 GPA and can go to any college in Indiana. Similarly, another athlete who was detained a few months has seen a big change. The mentor described that since August, this student has broken up several fights and walked away from situations he normally wouldn’t. They have seen improvement in his grades and he’s started to think about graduation and the future.

Shawn Pendergraf, Peer Recovery Specialist, said, “Our community needs peer recovery coaches because there’s still a real-life drug crisis in our community. Peer recovery is evidence-based practice and is the embodiment of reducing stigma. Allowing us to become coaches is one of the biggest ways to reduce stigma and it is the bridge between those in active addiction and the community that wants to help.”  Peer Recovery Specialists are important because they understand and have gone through the same experiences of those they want to help.

The funds have allowed Next Step to conduct multiple local peer recovery specialist trainings and so far, they have trained over 60 new peer recovery specialists. Training peers locally gives the solution to our problems right here.  Shawn stated, “I grew up hearing that it takes a community to raise a child and I believe that it takes a community to help someone recover. Training peers locally is a way to get people involved locally, and it is a strong statement for our community health by taking it on personally.”

Local school leader Derek Grant stated, “So many of our students go home each day without being able to count on family to help reinforce learning concepts that they learned in school, or even to be able to help finish simple homework assignments. Many kids from our school get off the bus and head home to an empty house. “The Way Forward” gives students in our small town a place to go to receive homework help and tutoring when they might not have access to any help outside of the school day.”

Merom tutors also shared the story of Kaci and Elika. Both girls started coming to tutoring in January to work on their spelling. After spending time sounding out words and taking many practice tests, they both became a whiz at spelling and math. The girls also loved to play Monopoly or Scrabble as a reward for their hard work. Their parents were grateful and plan to bring them back for the fall semester. Overall, they believe it has been a great success. United Way and Merom Church are glad they were able to provide this service and hope to see it continue to flourish in the future.

These services are vital to the community and helping families get back on track. Stacie, a mother of three, left her abusive boyfriend after she lost her kids. She was unemployed and having a hard time showing CPS that she could take care of her children. She learned about the Brazil United Methodist Church through Salvation Army, and the aid they provided helped her get back on track. She got a job, moved into an apartment, and currently has visitation with her kids with hopes they will soon be back with her permanently.

Stacie is one of many of the families served who have decided to give back by volunteering. UMC says one of their biggest blessings was meeting Kim. She came through the drive-thru line to receive a hot meal and some groceries. Talking with her, they discovered she had just moved to Brazil, lived close to the church, and had experience running food pantries and soup kitchens in the past. Kim asked if she could come help the next week, and has been with them every week since.

The great partnership between United Way of the Wabash Valley and the Brazil United Methodist Church has allowed for the continuation of these programs, and in turn, the ability to help families in need. The program demonstrates that when you give back, you get back as proven by the recipients who become consistent volunteers.

While providing meals for anyone who needed it, the program was also able to provide meals for a mother who was diagnosed with COVID and was not able to leave home. The program was able to deliver hot meals for her and her children. Another story comes from a woman who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Because of her compromised immune system, she could not leave her home due to the pandemic. Being able to have hot meals delivered made her life much less stressful and she could focus on recovering.

Thanks to the support of the United Way of the Wabash Valley, Pace was able to make this program a success.

Because of United Way of the  Valley’s support, Kid Kare has been able to stock food pantry shelves in Vigo, Parke, and Vermillion counties serving 1700 individuals. In addition to the food pantry, their support to Kid Kare Project has also provided basic need items such as hygiene products, school supplies, shoes, underwear, diapers, laundry detergent, and household cleaning supplies.

A mother who recently found the courage to enter substance abuse rehab wrote, “This summer I was able to make it to the in-house store [supply closet] and get some extra clothing items. I got swimsuits for the baby and even some shirts for my teenage son as these items are hard for me to afford and we were in need. He was very surprised! It really helped add relief, surprise, gratitude, and happiness to my children when they otherwise wouldn’t have had any. It really just makes our hearts believe really great things when otherwise we would have really been empty. It touched our family as it validated my children adding a sense of worth and love reminding them they are special and people do care, filling their days with loving memories reminding them there are still good people out there willing to help. I’m really amazed and thankful for this program’s compassion and overwhelming support.”

The mother successfully completed rehab and remains clean and sober, and she has been so motivated by the generosity shown to her and her family that she wants to help others in the future.  This is just one of the many families Kid Kare has been able to support.

The course cost $20 to participate; however, this was refunded for participating in 9 out 10 sessions.  Participants are provided with one year of access to online resources in addition to classes.  Y staff followed up outside of the weekly 1-hour classes with the goal of offering ongoing support and encouragement.  The course offered multiple incentives including an end of session ice cream social, gift card for perfect attendance, incentive for reaching $400 in emergency fund, and an incentive for paying off a debt greater than $500.

The first session had 16 participants start and finish the course. All participants created and followed a budget, and one participant was even able to pay off a debt greater than $500. At the Clay county YMCA at least half of the participants were able to reach a $1000 rainy day fund. Brook, the class instructor, stated, “Participants overwhelmingly saw the value of a budget and plan to utilize the skills learned in this course.”

In an end of course survey, participants stated the following:

• I have learned that I can save and it’s not as big and scary as it seems when you stop and look at it.
• I have decided that I am going to leave a better legacy for my children in the way they think about finance and I am going to be proactive in leaving them some inheritance.
• We learned that having a budget is imperative to even begin decreasing anxiety with money.
• My thinking has changed toward all the ‘deals’ that are constantly being pushed and that they are not what they seem.  I also understand how helpful budgeting is toward meeting your personal goals.  After taking this class I believe there is nothing better to do with your money than to be in a position to be generous and give to others.

With the support of United Way, the Salvation Army was able to help more families. Below are a few people whose lives were impacted:

• A single mother raising three children was struggling because her job hours had been cut due to Covid-19, and as a result she was behind on a few bills. The Salvation Army was able to assist her with paying her electric bill. Two weeks later, the woman returned to thank them and let them know she was back working full time.
• A single grandfather on Social Security with two teen aged grandchildren was assisted with a monthly natural gas bill.
• A single father with custody of a disabled toddler whose only source of income is disability for the child as he is the only caregiver. The Salvation Army was able to pay a monthly electric bill.

Upon entering the room, I see that Mary has brought all the documentation of the Quality Childcare Initiative Grant with her, a large vertical flip notebook filled with papers, receipts, and notes of every kind.  She will leave no stone unturned.  Soon we are joined by Evalyn Walton and Lisa Hudson.

Mary is the program director for CRADLES.  Evalyn is the site coordinator at the Clay City location, and Lisa is the site coordinator here at the Brazil location.  Having set up my camera to record and adjusted it numerous times to make sure I can hear and see everyone, I dive in.

“Tell me a bit about CRADLES.  What’s your aim here?”

Evalyn takes up the mantle of breaking down the CRADLES acronym (which I didn’t even realize it was until this moment).

“Our aim is really reflected in our name.  The acronym for CRADLES stands for Creating Responsible Adults by Developing Leadership and Education for Self-sufficiency.” Wow, that’s a big goal and a big name.  “So, our target audience are parents that need to finish their education, whether that be high school or working on HSE, what used to be GED, or continuing on to college or trade school or CNA training or something like that.  We want to come along side them, provide developmentally appropriate quality childcare for their children but affordable so they are able to continue whatever journeys they are on.”  As a non-traditional college student with kids myself, I am aghast.  What an amazing thing to provide for a community. It doesn’t end there though.

“Alongside of that, then, we also do parenting classes for parents that reflect both things we see as needs and things they have said that they were interested in.”  CRADLES has people from CASY, local pastors, and other local experts in general parenting areas come in to provide these classes.  They are also getting a mentoring program up and running for parents. “ Not that somebody is just going to sit you down and tell you how to do everything, but someone to just come alongside parents.”

CRADLES in Brazil has 12 kids, three of which are in the new On My Way Pre-K program that launched because of the QCIG.  Like Sprouts and Nurture with Nature, the grant stretched to many different aspects of their schools.  Mary explains that the Brazil site can now hold twenty children which is possible because of the grant.

“You applied and obviously got it, what impact did that make?”

“It was tremendous,” Evalyn explains from her point at the Clay City site. “At Clay City, our issues were costly physical things.  We needed a more elaborate fire system, which we could not afford.” She also explains that for the Paths to Quality standards they needed better lighting in all of their rooms.  They also needed a new classroom to provide more age-related lessons so that when all their renovations are done, they too can have an On My Way Pre-k program.

At the Brazil site, they added fencing to separate playgrounds according to age group.

Mary Yelton: “ The grant went to purchase a fence, of course, and built a tricycle track on two of them.  Lots of equipment, like their music wall.  There’s a mud kitchen.  There’s a funnel sensory table.  There’s a little house.”

Lisa Hudson: We’ve got the climbing wall, the slide.  We’ve got a little box thing with wooden discs in it that they can stack.

Mary: “Then a stage where they can perform.”

Lisa: “We’ve got a boat and they’ll take little sticks and use them as fishing poles.”

They are obviously excited about the amazing things they were able to do with their grant.  Along with the curriculum, they were able to open up several spots and become Paths to Quality level 3.

Is your childcare center ready to open up some awesome new paths for learning and imagination?  Apply for the Quality Childcare Initiative Grant!