Project Outreach will be closed for snow days when the Providence Schools close.

High School Student Workers Show Their Mettle at Project Outreach

Project Outreach will miss the terrific high school workers returning to school in the fall. About one dozen young men from Goodwill Industries have helped us out each week. They are special needs students who have been learning to work this summer and have received their first paychecks. They have worked in the garden and with the food distribution. One of them told Project Outreach Director Paula Cartwright that he wants to work at Project Outreach when he grows up, even if he doesn't get paid. They are having a great time and helping us too! We have a young lady who comes to us from Perspectives and she is a special needs student as well. She has been distributing books to the families at our Summer Free Book Fair.In addition, we have two other teenage girls from The School for the Deaf. They are also distributing books to families.

Each week, Turning The Corner brings us several young ladies who are in the DCYF 90-day placement program. They are lovely ladies who are helping us put together book bags and school supplies for distribution during all of August and September. We are worried about how some of these girls will make it when they turn 19 and leave state custody to live on their own. They are learning skills at Project Outreach that we hope will help them somewhat and we will follow up with them if they need our help in the future.

Project Outreach Wins Ocean State Action Get Out the Vote Award

Karen Malcolm from Ocean State Action presented on March 10 its Get Out the Vote Award to Project Outreach's Denise Rolman its award for community action at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank Annual Agency Conference. Denise is both a client and volunteer, as well as a new addition to the Project Outreach Board of Directors. Project Outreach chose Denise to accept the award because she is 48 years old and voted for the first time in her life this year. She said that she learned the importance of voting and the difference it can make in her life and that of her community at Project Outreach.

Project Outreach Is RICFB Largest Client

Michael Gerhardt, the interim director of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank informed Project Outreach Director Paula Cartwright that according to RICFB 2006 statistics, Project Oureach is the largest distributer of food to the poor in Rhode Island. Project Outreach distributed 398,882 pounds of food, which is around 1 million dollars in retai.

Project Outreach Forms Partnership with the Interfaith Counseling Center to Aid Crime Victims

Providence, RI: Paula Cartwright, the director of Project Outreach at Washington Park, announced a partnership between Project Outreach and the Interfaith Counseling Center, which received funding through a Victims of Crime Act grant to counsel victims of crime. The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) administers the Crime Victims Fund to help victims and victim service providers with program funding in accordance with OVC's Program Plan for the fiscal year. The partnership initially will extend through the first half of 2005.

Project Outreach will provide the same services to crime victims that it normally does it its clients from the 02905 area. The only difference is if the victims are referred from the Interfaith Counseling Center, they don't have to live in that area. For example, if they were in a fire that was intentionally set, Project Outreach might provide them with clothing and household goods, food, help finding a new place to live, money toward a security deposit on a new apartment, toys and school supplies for children, and anything else that they might need, as well as referrals to other services.

The project often provides for people in extreme situations. It has given people in temporary housing such as a hotel, a cooler full of food so they could feed their children while they were there, as well as donate toys and toiletries. The project has also helped robbery victims who have lost their clothing and personal effects at shelters, where thefts are often prevalent.

Meanwhile, Cartwright is trying to spread the word about the partnership and Project Outreach’s services to those who need them, as well as the free counseling services from the Interfaith Counseling Center.

The process of combing the services of both organizations has been a learning experience for Cartwright. And some of her clients’ needs have resonated as never before. “I have become closer and more personally involved in meeting the needs of our clients who have been victims of crime. For example, a grandmother shared with me that her daughter was raped and became pregnant. Her precious five year old grandson was the result. She has since brought him in to meet me. During this recent cold weather snap, I found out that the boy did not even have a pair of socks. We were able to provide them,” she explained.

Cartwright also reported that in addition to rape cases, many of her other clients have been victims of domestic abuse. Others have been victims of home robberies more than once. Project Outreach’s volunteers already have been helping these victims as well as those with needs for the project’s other services.

Sometimes the need to help crime victims strikes closer home than others. A Project Outreach board member and volunteer who lives in the neighborhood had her home broken into three times in recently in a short period of time. Other volunteers and clients from the neighborhood have been victims of armed robbery and assault.

Cartwright pointed out that the partnership benefits both Project Outreach and the Interfaith Counseling Center, but the clients benefit the most because they receive the services of both organizations.

Project Outreach has provided numerous services for more than 20 years in Washington Park and surrounding areas to some 500-600 needy families that comprise about 900 individuals. Its services include food distribution, health programs, children’s health and safety, gardening, nutrition and cooking, fuel and utility assistance, lead abatement information, and financial planning.

Cartwright reiterated the advantages to partnership for all involved, “I am glad that we are there for people in their times of need to provide material goods, as well as understanding and friendship. Moreover, we can now refer our clients for counseling at the Interfaith Counseling Center at no charge. The funds we receive cover the hours of my time dedicated to this work, as well as money for the direct service program.”

She looks forward to renewing the partnership for next year.