Touring the community works campaign

Allison Clarke Guest Writer

On Sept. 8, Vassar College launched its fourth annual Community Works fund-raising campaign. The funds from the campaign, which runs through November, will help 12 local not-for-profit agencies conduct their work in the surrounding Hudson Valley. The campaign will also be supporting one international organization in Africa in an effort to demonstrate Vassar’s commitment to its role in the global community.

The Community Works Campaign began in 2001 when the College decided to discontinue its support of the United Way of Dutchess County. The College ended their work with the organization as a result of United Way’s affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America, a national organization that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. With the implementation of the Community Works Campaign, Vassar’s efforts are aimed at creating social change within the local community.

As part of the Campaign, I, along with several other members of the Vassar community, toured five of the local agencies. Led by Director of Field Work Peter Leonard, we spent a whirlwind afternoon seeing these agencies at work.

New Horizons
The first stop on the tour was New Horizons, a not-for-profit agency that provides services to children and adults who have mental retardation and developmental disabilities. New Horizons works with more than 250 people who have special needs in their own homes, at work, or in community-based residential programs located throughout the Dutchess and Ulster counties. Many of the agency’s clients are on the higher end of functioning, allowing them to move into apartments. Others are able to own their own homes through the Home of Your Own Program. New Horizons has 19 community-based residencies and several apartments, which house people who range in age from their early 20’s to their mid 80’s. The staff at New Horizons works to provide ongoing support in order to ensure that each person’s particular needs and goals are met.

In order to provide the highest quality of care possible, the agency works to ensure that its values are infused in all levels of the agency. Their philosophy emphasizes that the conditions of everyday life must be made available to their clients so that they can then participate fully within their communities. New Horizons also strives to create an environment in which a sense of belonging and inclusion allow the agency’s clients to experience a sense of normalcy within their lives. The agency provides training and support necessary to enable their clients to function fully within their various communities. The organization prides itself on its respect for the individual. The organization’s clients come from a wide range of backgrounds with a variety of abilities. Regardless of these differences, the organization treats each person equally.

Living Room
Our second stop was at the Family Partnership Center (FPC), which occupies a large building in the center of Poughkeepsie. The Family Partnership Center houses a variety of social service programs that address issues of homelessness, hunger, chemical abuse, and the lack of community space within Poughkeepsie. The Living Room, a resource center for those who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, are mentally ill, or have addiction problems, is housed in the FPC. The Living Room provides a secure daytime environment for those living on the street. It becomes a place in which people without a home can make phone calls, store belongings, receive and send mail, do their laundry, take showers, and feel as if they have their own space in which to belong.

The staff at the Living Room works to provide an array of services, from contact with potential employers, counseling services to those that suffer from domestic abuse, chemical abuse, and mental illness, community and jail outreach services, connection to other community organizations, access to clothing and furniture, and ongoing recovery meetings. Mel Garrett, Director of the Living Room said that his goals for the organization are to “recognize the needs of the community and to bring the community into the program.”

The Living Room has worked hard to establish ties to the local faith based communities, the Dutchess County Jail and correction officers, and the Poughkeepsie police. The Living Room is open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library
Within the same building we visited the Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library. Due to the large amount of interest in a black film festival, the community recognized that the Family Partnership Center needed to involve the African-American community in Poughkeepsie.

The Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library is an afro-centric family library that works to promote literacy through the teaching and learning of the African experience, culture, and history. The Quilt Project was the Library’s first big undertaking. The goal of the Quilt Project was to transfer grasslands and trees of Africa to the Hudson valley. The large quilt, which is displayed on the library wall, shows the progression of time from the colonial period to the present. With the completion and success of the Quilt Project, the library took on its next goal:to acquire a comprehensive collection of books for all ages that examine and explore African culture, history, and literature. The money from the Community Works Campaign will help the library’s collection to grow.

Dutchess Outreach
The last social service program we visited within the Family Partnership Center was the Dutchess Outreach Program. This program has been in Poughkeepsie for 30 years providing basic emergency support to the community. They provide emergency assistance, such as transportation to rehab and the purchasing of medications, to those that have been denied help from the state. The Dutchess Outreach Program works to advocate on behalf of these clients by filling in the gaps left by inconsistencies in the state’s approach to social services.

According to Executive Director Brian Riddell, the program acts as the safety net for the safety net, a role he claims the organization shouldn’t have to play.

Beyond the general emergency assistance, the Dutchess Outreach Program also runs the Lunch Box, a soup kitchen that serves a midday meal to those in need six days a week. Last year, the Lunch Box served over 55,000 meals.

The Lunch Box also provides food to those that are suffering from AIDS/HIV and are homebound. The food that is distributed amongst the homebound and their families is paid for through the money raised by Vassar’s Community Works Campaign.

Children’s Media Project
The Children’s Media Project, located in downtown Poughkeepsie is an arts and education organization that focuses on the media and technology. The organization works with all age groups, from children in elementary school to college students. The Children’s Media Project works to create an environment in which children and young adults are able to explore their own artistic expression through video and technology, while also learning to become critical viewers of popular media.

The organization targets young adults, the group most highly influenced by popular media, and helps them to deconstruct images, to understand how they are influenced by popular images, and learn how to question popular media and recognize it as something that is constructed.

Beyond simply raising students’ consciousness of the media, the organization offers a variety of different programs and projects. They have created various CD-ROMs that focus on topics such as school violence, sexual assault, and the dangers of smoking. Students are given the opportunity to create media through Drop-TV, a youth produced magazine-style series, as well as through the various classes the organization teaches on graphic design, animation, narrative films, public service announcements, and documentaries.

If you would like to learn more about the other organizations that the Community Works Campaign is sponsoring, visit communityworks.vassar.edu.