NDSM helps record numbers in 2010In 2010 we were able to help more than 62,000 of the less fortunate among us as demand for assistance remained at historically high levels.
The kindness and generosity of our over 400 volunteers, the support of the 50 covenant congregations that we represent, and the financial and in-kind contributions of many charitable and philanthropic individuals, foundations and corporations made it possible for us to respond to the continuing needs of our community. In a year of uncertainty, we focused on improving and expanding existing programs, rather than undertaking major new initiatives. And we again leveraged the contributions of many partners to serve our community. Here are some highlights: • North Texas Food Bank outreach caseworkers are now on site 3 days each week (up from 2) to assist clients to apply for food stamps and Medicaid. NTFB also helps us offer USDA's PAN (People and Nutrition) program to eligible seniors as part of our Friday Food Basket. Enrollment in PAN more than doubled this year. • Foundation Communities is providing equipment, outreach and staff for our tax preparation assistance program - saving clients from preparation expenses and high-interest "instant refund" loans. • Through our formalized referral process with Salvation Army we assist clients in its substance abuse and domestic violence programs and also assisted 500 families seeking Christmas help. • A Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services caseworker is now on site every weekday (up from 3 times per week) to process applications for CEAP (Comprehensive Energy Assitance Program). We continue to advance rent assistance requested by DCHHS, some $400,000 last year. • The Dallas Furniture Bank provides furniture and delivery service to our clients. We underwrite the cost. We also re-focused our medical services in 2010. Family and Community medical professionals from UT Southwestern now staff an increased number of clinics and we saw 6,014 patients - a 17% increase from 2009. Here again we were able to do more because of strong partnerships, including these partners: • Dallas Concilio is providing diabetes education to women's clinic patients. •Three laboratories - Pathologists Bio-Medical Laboratories, PathAdvantage and ProPath - are donating all testing services for women's clinic patients. •Texas Vaccines for Children is providing all vaccines for childhood immunizations. Financial support is always crucial for a non-profit. Our covenant congregations and their members provide roughly 40% of our monetary needs. Other friends of NDSM contribute another 16 percent. These philanthropic groups and corporations provided another 41 percent of our funding: • The Dallas Morning News Charities We never forget that we are the outreach ministry of many religious congregations - 50 at present. And we'd like to welcome four congregations that became a part of NDSM this past year: • Marsh Lane Baptist Church Looking forward, we are guardedly optimistic that we'll see less need for our services this year. But we're also pragmatic enough to know that we cannot ease up. We must continue to recruit new volunteers, engage our memeber congregations, find the partners who allow us to extend our services, seek new and sustaining financial support and take our story to a wider audience. Thanks to all who have helped us reach this point. If you'd like to join us, there are many opportunities for service described here. Please know we'd welcome your support. |
