Keeping Up to Keep Warm

By: Ashlee Lange with Paula Van De Werken

More than 1,000 young adults and adolescents live in New Hampshire without a stable, permanent home (Carsey Institute, 2010), and 25% of Manchester's children are living below the poverty level (Carsey Institute, 2009). These numbers do not include the needful parents, the elderly, or the veterans returning from war who have suffered debilitating injuries. And considering the realities of the need for warm clothing, in the course of our busy lives, we often put those needs onto the back burner or forget about them entirely.

Commonsense and science dictate that in order to withstand the harsh New England winter temperatures, proper attire must be worn. For the most part, we think that hats, gloves, jeans, socks, sweaters, long sleeves, heavy coats and boots are easily attainable. A young child may not have the proper attire to safely walk to school, or go outside to play at recess. And often times, the parent of that child will sacrifice their own needs to make sure the child is properly dressed for winter.

This is a common reality for many New Hampshire residents who cannot afford to purchase those necessities because the electric, heating, medical, or food bill takes precedence. Or, those bills have been paid and there is just enough leftover to put gas in the car to get the kids to school and you to work. These situations are happening in alarming numbers across New Hampshire, and more frequently than agencies can keep up with. In this economic reality, the numbers are only going to increase, at least in the short term.

And with the continuing downward spiral of the economy, ongoing job-loss and unemployment, and lowered state and federal assistance to social service agencies, this typically means a decreased availability of services to the needy. In 2009, the Warmth from the Millyard project was limited because the University (faculty, staff and students) geared up as soon as classes began in mid-September, but did not have the ability to distribute the needed warm clothing until November. Come November, the temperatures are unbearable while wearing inadequate clothing, and many of the partnering agencies needed clothing for their clients months before.

This realization didn't sit well in my ever curious mind to combat social justice issues by building partnerships. I needed to get to the bottom of when the need for warm clothing begins, besides the common answer of "when it gets cold", and how this fulfillment of the need for warm clothing is incorporated into the outreach of some Warmth from the Millyard partnering organizations.

To begin tackling this complex question, Paula Van De Werken [Warmth from the Millyard Recipient Outreach Coordinator] and I sat down with three non profits located on the I-93 corridor, serving the most populist regions of New Hampshire: Friends of Forgotten Children (Concord), SNHS Head Start and Early Head Start (Manchester area), and the Greater Nashua Mental Health Center. Each of these agencies displayed a thoughtful account of the way they see the need for warm clothing to enhance the success of their clients and how we can work together to make it easily attainable. We confirmed an eye opening, and harsh reality, for too many of our neighbors.

Friends of Forgotten Children (Concord)

This long-standing and respected non-profit serves 5,000 families in Concord and the surrounding towns of Penacook, Bow, and Boscawen. They strive to assist families with procuring the basic needs of food, clothing, furniture, household and holiday gifts. They fulfill this commitment through their food pantry and community meals, the clothing shop, and yearly holiday baskets during the Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter seasons.

In a letter to the community, Executive Director Andrew Barnes explained that in the first half of 2009 the need for their services had nearly tripled, and by the third quarter, the demand nearly forced them to close their doors. “We were serving five out of the ten counties in New Hampshire,” said Barnes. “We had to reign in and give other options, so we tried to subsidize people by offering alternative sources closer to them.”

In 2009, Friends of Forgotten Children served 107,000 meals and about 120,000 meals are expected to be served in 2010. Barnes explained that clients who utilize the food pantry and community meals are also clothing shoppers at their shop which distributes free clothing and clothing at less than yard sale prices to their clients. Barnes also noted that he not only sees the need for seasonal clothing year round, but also mentions that the need for warm clothing specifically begins during the middle of September.

SNHS Head Start and Early Head Start Program (Manchester and surrounding communities)

SNHS Head Start and Early Head Start work to better the lives of children and their families. In this program (which has different offices Statewide), serves 64 children six weeks to three years old and has two programs: center based and home based. The center based program allows childcare in one of their facilities so that parents can work, and the home based program provides for parenting education and parent-child bonding, providing a family worker visit once a week.

Out of the 317 students enrolled in their county wide Head Start program serving three to five year old children, 160 of them reside in Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city. In 2010, it is reported that one-third of its families are on public assistance or disability, and two-thirds of them are living below the poverty line but not on public assistance.

Pamela Lane, Family Services Manager, notes that many too often the cost of gasoline to transport their children to school, and/or the warm clothing their kids need cannot be met. Heat and other “over-riding” household necessities have to be met first. They have also noticed that parents and older siblings do without proper cold weather attire so that the younger children can be somewhat better prepared. A simple thing, such as having spare hats and mittens on hand in the classroom to distribute to those children who come to school without, is a great plus for this organization.

The Greater Nashua Mental Health Center

The Greater Nashua Mental Health Center offers a vast array of services for adults, adolescents and children, seniors and the Deaf population in Nashua and nine surrounding communities. Their services range from mental health care, drug and alcohol abuse, a supervised visitation center, a specialized court liaison project, a batterers intervention program 24-hour emergency service, homeless outreach, and more. In 2009, they served over 5,000 clients, children and families in the full range of their services.

Susan Mead, Homeless Outreach Coordinator, works to provide adequate resources for those to get into a shelter, and find and retain employment. Worst case is to provide adequate clothing protection for the homeless outside of the shelters. Mead mentions they begin their Winter Outreach to procure needed warm clothing in early October, when the need arises. Additionally, the GNMHC case workers typically inform their agency of the resources needed by their clients, including the need for warm clothing.

Warmth from the Millyard

Many people have to choose and sacrifice providing warm clothing for themselves or their families so that they can provide other necessities such as fuel to transport their children to school or themselves to work, or to fix a flat tire, or pay the car insurance. They also have to pay urgent utility bills and other household costs to keep the exigencies of their day to day lives met so that their family life can continue with some sort of continuity and security.

We can see in these three representative agency accounts that each say that the need for warm clothing begins in mid to late September. That is two months before the retched, bad snowy weather with ultra-cold temperatures hit us. No more do we have to wait until there’s a foot of snow on the ground to clean out the closets and give clothing to those who need it. We may have found the answer.

Warmth from the Millyard has worked effortlessly to launch a web-based donor-recipient matching service, provided by Volunteer New Hampshire. Utilizing this online tool will allow us to begin responding to this need for warm clothing before the temperatures begin to plunge and the snow arrives. The service officially launches on September 17th. Partnering with these and many other organizations is easily accessible in an online community setting and allows for the easy connection and partnership between donors and recipients to get the proper clothing to those who need it in a timely manner.