Ashland shelter among nonprofits seeking help to earn grant from Gannett Foundation

Ashland Church Community Emergency Shelter Services is seeking a Gannett Foundation grant to enhance its mission to women and families in Ashland County who have lost stable housing and need support to get back on their feet.

ACCESS is one of more than 750 nonprofits across the country, including several in the tri-county region of Ashland, Wayne and Holmes, competing through crowdfunding efforts for a share of $2 million in grants being awarded this year in the Gannett Foundation's A Community Thrives program.

Each nonprofit that applied and which qualified for the ACT program is starting the next phase of the process and has until Aug. 12 to raise funds through the online platform Mightycause. Minimum goals for donations range from $3,000 to $6,000, depending on the group's operating budget, in order to quality for the ACT grants.

The Ashland shelter's goal is $5,000, and its operating budget is $101,425.

A Community Thrives is a grantmaking and crowdfunding program from the USA TODAY NETWORK, which includes USA TODAY and Gannett’s hundreds of local media brands including Ashland Times-Gazette and Wooster Daily Record.

Ashland ACCESS hopes to renovate housing for those in need

The project ACCESS has chosen — renovation of its 1900-era housing, from making infrastructure improvements to updating flooring, ceilings, lighting and other accommodation features — will cost $92,396.

The organization wants to improve the experience of participants and be better able to integrate ACCESS into the community.

Not everyone knows that the assistance supplied by the faith-based ACCESS ministry includes single fathers under the category of family, said Assistant Director Sunny McCarty.

Recent statistics show ACCESS was able to offer its services — temporary housing; one-on-one meetings; development of self-sufficiency plans and goal-setting; budgeting; and employment and housing searches — to 60 people.

However, demonstrating growing community needs, McCarty said, ACCESS has already received 85 calls for help this year.

People seeking assistance can call ACCESS directly or go through central intake at the Kroc Center, which provides a lot of referrals, McCarty said.

"We run a background check on every person," she said.

Funded by grants and donations, ACCESS is headed by Executive Director Cathy Thiemens.

ACCESS clients are housed in apartments in two donated houses on Claremont Avenue. They may stay in an apartment for 90 days.

The 90-day program, according to the website, encompasses free housing, meals, transportation and mentoring.

Guests have work- and housing-related responsibilities.

McCarty acknowledged finding affordable permanent housing for them when they leave "has been a struggle."

Housing is often sought in other counties, including Wayne, where ACCESS works with Wayne County Metropolitan Housing Authority.

ACCESS covers housing application fees.

"We don't want it to look like ACCESS is a revolving door," McCarty said. Rather, taking advantage of its alliance with 12 supporting churches and its connections with Appleseed Community Mental Health Center and other area agencies, it hopes to foster "sustainable change" for the people under its care.

Last year 91% of ACCESS participants were moved to permanent housing.

Of the 60 people helped in the recent past, 29 of them were children, said the organization's treasurer, Lori Gottfried, highlighting that for these families, "It's really traumatic not to have a place to go home to."

Gottfried said she "knows a lot of people don't see" the demographic of local people sleeping in cars or on other people's couches and moving from place to place; but that is happening.

"We want to provide them with some place safe and secure," Gottfried said.

As part of its fundraising effort, ACCESS is reaching out to the community to make it aware of the plight of those who don't have a stable home.

In addition to making donations, community members can provide meals and fellowship.

$17 million in grants awarded since 2017

With the help of A Community Thrives, which began in 2017, nonprofits have been able to elevate their ideas and help their local communities improve.

“A Community Thrives has been an excellent way for Gannett to leverage its platforms to raise attention and funds for participating nonprofit organizations," said Sue Madden, director of the Gannett Foundation. "Over the past five years, the program has contributed more than $17 million to community building projects and local operating expenses of service organizations across the country.”

All nonprofit organizations participating in ACT's Fundraising Campaign get to keep all of the money they raise, but the top projects also will quality for additional grants to support their plans to implement community-changing ideas.

The top fundraisers will receive a total of $200,000 in grants, and in addition eligible organizations will qualify for consideration of the National Project and Local Operating grants.

The top three fundraisers with at least 10 unique donors in the two different tiers — based on annual budgets of above and below $500,000 — will receive local community incentive grants of between $10,000 and $25,000.

Up to $100,000 will be awarded to top nonprofits.

In addition, 16 participating nonprofits will receive national grants of between $25,000 and $100,000.

More information on A Community Thrives is available online at gannettfoundation.org/act.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: More than 750 nonprofits nationwide are competing for $2M in grants