LouLife [1]

Photos By John Nation

It’s a hard time for helping people. It’s always been a hard time, helping people, but it’s been getting even harder.

Social service agencies typically scramble for funding, scratching for every cent they can get from state and federal budgets, private foundations and personal and corporate donations. But in the aftermath of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and some sluggish days for the economy — combined with flat or even reduced levels of government funding — the last few years have been especially difficult.

Still, agencies struggle to maintain services and find creative ways to either stretch the dollars they have or secure more — and some organizations are taking bold and progressive steps even in the midst of these uncertain times.

"The needs of our kids don’t change," says Judy Lambeth, president and CEO of Maryhurst, which cares for girls who’ve been removed from their homes. "Just because the state doesn’t have enough revenue doesn’t mean the needs of the children go away."

Louisville Magazine decided to highlight a few of the nonprofit organizations that are advancing despite recent tribulations. Many others, both big and small, also are keeping up the good fight. But first, a little perspective on the problem.

"If you’re in the nonprofit sector providing human services," says Metro United Way president Joe Tolan, who’s been working in the field since finishing his graduate degree in social work in 1969, "you’ve really got three basic legs of support: Usually, the biggest one is public funding; for many agencies United Way funding is an important piece; and the third prong is whatever direct fund-raising the agency does itself. The last few years have been the first time in my career that I’ve seen real pressures on all three legs. . . . It is a different time, generally speaking, because there are negative pressures on all three, along with accelerated competition within the nonprofit sector."

An in-progress therapy and activity center at Maryhurst.

On the middle-income individual-giver level, there are obvious problems, such as how much more of income is now going to pay for gasoline.

Metro United Way spokeswoman Holly Hinson Stivers puts it this way: "People don’t have the money to go around," she says. "The people we dep/files/storyimages/on to give us money . . . some of them are becoming clients because it’s so hard to make a living out there."

One of the most obvious examples of the recent troubles is Brooklawn Child & Family Services, essentially a residential facility for boys who’ve been removed from their homes. Earlier this year, the state legislature had budgeted $2 million for Brooklawn to expand its facilities and care for more boys, but the $2 million was excised from the budget by Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Kosair Charities stepped up with a $2 million gift, and Brooklawn is hopeful it can receive another $2 million in the next session of the General Assembly. But there are no guarantees.

Wellspring Schizophrenia Foundation, on the other hand, recently got a big grant from the state — $1 million over two years — to help fund a new crisis stabilization unit in Louisville. But the $1 million is strictly for the CSU, and the agency’s funding levels for the rest of its programs, which serve about 120 people on any given night, have been and continue to remain flat in the face of ever-rising costs. "The safety net is frayed," says Katharine Dobbins, the associate director and director of programs at Wellspring. "We’ve always been creative in finding funding; we’ve always been aggressive; we’ve always had to be."

Maryhurst and Brooklawn

Brooklawn and Maryhurst are similar organizations. Perhaps the major difference between them is that Brooklawn works primarily with boys, while Maryhurst mostly serves girls. Both care for children who have been removed from their original homes by the state — through the Social Services or Juvenile Justice departments — usually because of neglect and/or abuse. Each houses teenagers, primarily, and provides counseling, schooling and transitional housing. Both are engaged in progressive attempts to bolster their services, and the two nonprofits are in the discussion stage of forming a collaborative alliance that would allow them to work together, with an attendant reduction in the duplication of efforts.

After its devastating loss of state funding and the reversal of fortune provided by Kosair Charities, Brooklawn has embarked on a $7 million capital campaign to raise money for improvements to the agency’s Gardiner Lane campus and to help it begin more off-campus programs such as transitional group homes and supervised apartments. The $2 million Brooklawn received from Kosair is included in that $7 million figure, and the agency is lobbying to get a $2 million grant from the state reinstated at the next General Assembly, which would leave it with only $3 million to go. The money raised by the campaign will go toward building new on-campus cottages for the boys, renovation of the 1960s-era residential dorms now in use, new off-campus programs, and building a greenhouse and horticulture center to be used for vocational training and therapeutic activities.

"One of the driving forces behind our incentive to proceed with our capital campaign is the fact that we have children ready to leave, but there aren’t enough foster homes for them to go to," says David Graves, Brooklawn’s director. "Meanwhile, there are children in psychiatric hospitals who could be coming here."

Graves points out that residential programs like Brooklawn and Maryhurst cost taxpayers less than keeping children in hospitals. "Even though economic times are hard — or maybe because the times are hard — there are more and more children being referred to Brooklawn and needing treatment," he says. "We are compelled to look for ways to expand our services and better treat children who are coming through."

Maryhurst has already begun work on a $1.5 million therapeutic wellness and activity center on its Dorsey Lane campus. The organization procured the money through community-based fund-raising and by getting corporation and foundation grants. Lambeth credits U.S. Rep. Anne Northup for helping the agency acquire a HUD grant.

The approximately 12,000-square-foot facility will feature a gymnasium, art rooms for expressive therapies and a teaching kitchen to help prepare Maryhurst’s residents for life on their own after they leave campus. "Our kids are adolescents," Lambeth says. "The trauma they’ve been through — they can’t just sit in an office and tell you what’s going on. This is not the traditional psychotherapy, so we try to come at kids in different ways."

Brooklawn’s Gardiner Lane campus (left) and Salvation Army director Maj. Richard Watts.

The Salvation Army of Louisville Metro is hoping it can do something really big to make a difference in the community — if the community will help it get there. The agency, perhaps best known for its annual Christmas fund-raising efforts and for its Boys and Girls Clubs, is trying to raise $15 million in donations by the /files/storyimages/of this year. If it accomplishes that dollar figure, it is in line to receive an additional $30 million grant for the purpose of building and endowing a community center in the Rubbertown area of southwestern Jefferson County, which currently has no such facility.

Louisville is one of 10 cities that could get matching grants from the Ray and Joan Kroc Trust, set up by the founder of McDonald’s. Earlier reports that the Louisville Salvation Army was not guaranteed the $30 million from the foundation even if it should reach the $15 million mark were the result of a miscommunication with the national organization’s Southern territory headquarters, according to Maj. Richard Watts, the agency’s local commander. Watts says the local chapter has already met or is in the process of meeting its requirements, leaving only the fund-raising as a major concern. According to an official at the Kroc Trust, Louisville has been "preliminarily approved" for the $30 million grant and is in various stages of development for final approval.

Half of the $30 million from the Kroc Trust would be used to build a $15 million, 65,000-square-foot facility that will feature athletic fields, a swimming pool and a Boys and Girls Club. The other half would create an endowment for the facility. The $15 million raised locally by the Salvation Army will be divided up among the endowment, improving existing Boys and Girls Clubs, and expanding the agency’s Center of Hope, which assists homeless families, women and children.

All of that will be academic, though, if the Salvation Army can’t come up with the first $15 million. It’s been running television spots featuring community leaders to help drum up support for the capital campaign, which stood at approximately $6.5 million raised by the /files/storyimages/of August.

"We have to believe that the community will step forward and help us meet our goal and make this facility a reality," Watts says.

The Salvation Army is targeting the Rubbertown area for the facility because it is one of the areas of greatest need in the community, Watts says. "This is not about the money. It’s about the people; it’s about hunger; it’s about poverty; and it’s about suffering," he says. "This is a chance for us to stand up and say that we can make a difference."

Metro United Way

Pick up your phone right now and dial 211.

Surprise. Unless you’re at a phone that doesn’t allow 411 information calls, you should be connected to the new Metro United Way 211 information line.

It’s a 12-county "help line" designed to join people in need with service providers. Working much the same way as 911, the new line will connect callers to operators trained to direct them to appropriate agencies and services. This is for people seeking help, organizers say, from agencies such as food banks, shelters and substance-abuse assistance centers — or any number of other helpful contacts. It’s for people who need help but are not in a life-threatening, 911 situation.

"Our mission really does say it: What we’re trying to do is improve lives in the community by mobilizing the caring power of the community," Tolan says. "Most folks have no idea how to navigate the human-services system. And that’s not just true of Louisville; that’s true anywhere."

The new service will help people who don’t know where to turn for child care, families in crisis, people with counseling needs, victims of domestic violence, and isolated senior citizens in danger of losing their independence, Tolan says. About 60 percent of all 911 calls nationally are not for life-threatening emergencies, and 211 will help ease the burden of 911 operators. "It’s about making it easier for people to find out where to turn," Tolan says.

The service covers Jefferson, Bullitt, Carroll, Henry, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties in Kentucky; and Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties in Southern Indiana. Metro United Way 211 director Glenn Powell says the agency expects to get about the same kind of response as the 11-county Nashville 211 line, which went from fewer than 65,000 calls in its first year to about 80,000 in its second.

Metro United Way awarded the 211 contract to Seven Counties Services, which had a pre-existing call line at its crisis and information center. The center fielded more than 82,000 calls last year without 211, Powell says, so he expects that number to increase now that the line has been launched.

The help line will cost slightly more than $500,000 in its first year and average approximately $600,000 for the first several years, Powell says. Metro United Way is partially funding the effort through its own reserve funds, but is looking for outside funding through grants from government, private and corporate sources. "This is in no way, shape or form going to affect Metro United Way funding of normal agency processes," he says.

Metro United Way’s Glenn Powell (left) directs its new 211 program; Wellspring associate director Katharine Dobbins and executive director Steve Perkins.

Bernie Block has a story to tell about his son, David. Once a promising student and athlete at Trinity High School and, subsequently, the U.S. Naval Academy and Centre College, David was stricken by a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, his father says. But he made the best of a bad situation and eventually became a respected writer, playwright and mental-health advocate. Then, in late 2004, he took a turn for the worse.

Early last year, his father tried to get him to check into a hospital, but like many people with mental illnesses, David didn’t like hospitals — didn’t like feeling confined or the at-times long waits for attention — and refused to go. He finally agreed to check into Wellspring’s crisis stabilization unit, an eight-bed, short-term care facility in downtown Louisville focused on doing just what its name suggests. But there was no room at the CSU. Not long after, David Block jumped off a bridge in Nashville, Tenn., and died a few days later.

About 800 people showed up at his funeral, his father says. "I think if he’d have known how many people cared about him, I’m not sure he would have done it," Bernie Block says now. "I think he thought he was alone."

"I’m proud of him. He did a lot better functioning than many do," he says. "He just really did a good job, but it was all he could do, to fight it every day. It just wore him out."

Block also believes that if there had been another CSU here in Louisville, there’s a good chance his son might still be alive — and both he and Wellspring are committed to making sure that changes.

Wellspring has been awarded a $1 million grant from the state to start a second CSU in Louisville. The new facility will be called the David Block CSU and be located in the Phoenix Hill neighborhood. The organization already operates an eight-bed CSU in conjunction with Seven Counties Services. It treated approximately 350 people last year, according to Dobbins, and she says there is a definite need for another facility. There is a shortage of hospital beds in this region, she says, and people are stacking up in emergency psychiatric services at University Hospital, where many acute sufferers are treated. There have been numerous times when the city goes on what is called "census alert," Dobbins says, which means there isn’t another hospital bed in the city available for psychiatric patients.

A CSU can and does act as a relief valve at those times. The Wellspring CSU is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There’s a psychiatrist available, and the unit offers peer-support counseling as well as both individual and group therapy.

Says Dobbins: "We do see that there are times when we definitely could provide relief to the system. In David’s case, there was no bed available, which led to a tragic outcome that we would like to see never repeated if possible."

Other Plans to Serve

Here are some other local social-service agencies with significant new or planned initiatives in this time of major need in the community.

Apple Patch Community
7408-A Hwy. 329, Crestwood, Ky.
657-0103, www.applepatch.org [4]

In the works: a plan to begin construction on a 47-acre "neighborhood" that would include single-family homes, patio homes, townhouses and apartments. The goal is for units to become available for individuals with mental retardation as well as the general public, advancing the integration of Apple Patch’s clients and their families with others in the community. The organization also hopes to add a community center, spiritual center and commercial development center.

Big Brothers Big Sisters
1519 Gardiner Lane
587-0494, www.bbbsky.org [5]

Big Brother Big Sisters will be working to expand several programs already in place. One of them, Mentoring Children of Prisoners, started a year ago; the $150,000 program matches children who have one or more parents in prison with a local big brother or sister. The organization is also seeking to increase its federal funding and gain more local support for its efforts on behalf of children of immigrants or those who speak another language.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana
1519 Story Ave.
585-5437, www.bgckyana.org [6]

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana received a $1 million grant from the state of Indiana to create Mitch’s Kids, an education and career program that provides homework help and tutoring for limited- and low-income elementary school students. Career fairs are also in the plan to provide job exploration for students.

Bridgehaven
920 S. First St.
585-9444, www.bridgehaven.com [7]

Bridgehaven is implementing two new programs designed to enhance rehabilitation, recovery and community integration for adults with severe mental illnesses. Partially funded by a grant from the Humana Foundation, the Determine Your Destiny initiative teaches participants how to achieve self-determination in areas such as choosing where to live and work. Another program, Overcoming Obstacles, promotes independence and community integration by teaching its members to use public transportation. Funded for $10,000 by LogistiCare and provided in cooperation with TARC, it provides instruction on TARC routes, schedules and fares.

Cabbage Patch
1413 S. Sixth St.
634-0811, www.cabbagepatch.org [8]

Cabbage Patch recently purchased several properties near its Old Louisville location as an early step in the organization’s multi-million-dollar expansion plans. A capital campaign is under way to raise $2-$3 million, and a groundbreaking for new facilities is expected within 12 months.

The Center for Women and Families
927 S. Second St.
581-7200, www.thecenteronline.org [9]

In partnership with more than a dozen local and state agencies, the Center for Women and Families will open the region’s first community-based SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) clinic in the near future. The facility will provide help for those who have been sexually assaulted by assigning them SANE nurses trained in forensic evidence collection. The clinic will be located at the center’s downtown Louisville campus.

Cerebral Palsy Kids Center
982 Eastern Pkwy.
635-6397, www.cpkidscenter.com

The center plans to build a therapeutic playground outside of its Eastern Parkway facility. Fund-raising is ongoing for the $100,000 playground, with construction scheduled to begin in spring 2007.

The Council on Mental Retardation
1146 S. Third St.
584-1239, www.councilonmr.org

The Council on Mental Retardation is launching its first public capital campaign, called "A Vision for Community." Its goal is to raise $750,000 for the renovation of a building in Old Louisville that would become the organization’s new headquarters. The new space will include a state-of-the-art conference and education center as well as the group’s offices.

Family and Children First
2303 River Road
893-3900, www.familyandchildrenfirst.org

Family and Children First has established a three-year strategic plan that stresses working with other organizations, including the Jefferson County Public Schools system, to bring together services geared toward preventing homelessness and counseling at-risk families. The organization also established HANDS, a program for first-time parents built around home visits offering counseling and support for the nurturing of children.

Habitat for Humanity of Metro Louisville
2777 S. Floyd St.
637-6265, www.hfhlouisville.org

Last March, Habitat for Humanity of Metro Louisville opened the Habitat Restore, a retail outlet that sells new and gently used home-improvement items at discounted prices. The items are donated by local homebuilders and remodelers and sold to the public, with proceeds going to the group’s funds for building more homes for low-income Louisvillians.

The Healing Place
1020 W. Market St.
585-4848, www.thehealingplace.org

The Healing Place is planning a major expansion and relocation of its Women’s Community to an eight-acre site at the corner of Hill and 16th streets. Pending purchase of the property, the organization hopes to supply facilities serving approximately 250 women and nearly 100 children suffering from homelessness and the fallout of addictions. The project is expected to cost more than $7 million.

Home of the Innocents
1100 E Market St.
596-1000, www.homeoftheinnocents.org

Home of the Innocents is in the second phase of a long-term project that includes adding four new buildings: a comprehensive assessment center, two residential buildings and an advanced therapy center with a heated therapy pool. The organization also expanded its services with a home-based program that promotes the understanding of autistic children through the education of all family members.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kentuckiana
550 S. First St.
561-7658, www.rmhlouisville.org

The recently opened Ronald McDonald Family Room, located in Norton Suburban Hospital, serves as a mini Ronald McDonald House by offering the parents of neo-natal intensive-care unit patients at the hospital the ability to stay overnight with their babies. There are four sleeping rooms and bathrooms with showers available for the parents. Snacks are also provided for those who do not want to leave the hospital to get a meal.