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United Way funds boost organizations throughout Mid-Ohio Valley

Photo by Jeff Baughan Terah Klein, left, president and chief executive officer at SW Resources, and Annetta Douglas, sales and marketing manager at SW Resources, stand in the warehouse at SW Resources. Both said United Way funds provide for job and vocational rehabilitation of clients.

PARKERSBURG — The 211 phone extension constantly rang in 2016 at the United Way Alliance offices.

So much so, Interim Director Stacy Decicco said “we were getting on average 46 calls a week for assistance and 75 percent of those calls were utility assistance related.

“When Tyler, Pleasants and Jackson County come into the fold, the calls will really be piling up,” she said. “Fortunately, there are ways to help.”

She said the level one client with the financial crisis response is to point them towards immediate help. “The second level is to point them towards a place like Consumer Credit Counseling Services.

“They can do phenomenal things at Consumer Credit,” she added. “With the financial crisis, the immediate thing is to do something about it. Secondly, Consumer Credit Counseling helps them learn how to not get in the same situation again. They will do things that will have a lasting effect. Whenever one calls Consumer Credit Counseling, they’re always going to get a compassionate person on the end of the line.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Collin Kelly works on a mosaic piece of artwork which will be sold in the SW Resources Graphic store after completion.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services is located at 2715 Murdoch Ave. with John Jackson as the executive director.

“When you stop and look at the incredible number of projects the United Way is apart of, then you see why the funding is so important,” Jackson said. “They are such a good partner for the agencies.”

Jackson said Consumer Credit is present “to help people recover from financial trouble or to help them avoid financial trouble,” he said. “We’re a designated payee for SW Resources. For the most part, we’re working with people who have not mismanaged funds as most people would think,” he added. “Far from it. Most are people who have lost a job or have divorced. They weren’t prepared for this curveball.”

A client coming into Consumer Credit can expect the service “to take an in-depth look at the income and they need to have some proof of the income,” Jackson said. “Then we set up a budget for them and they’re going to leave here knowing how to do a budget. Then we’re going to reach out to their creditors to see if they will accept a lower monthly payment from the client.

“The client then can pay the creditor directly or they can write us a check and we pay the creditor. They can come in and write us the check or do an automatic draft,” Jackson concluded. “Our goal is to have them paid off in 60 months. Some don’t have tremendous debt and can pay it off faster. Ninety-two percent of those who sign-up, complete the program.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Stacy Decicco

Terah Klein, who is the chief executive officer and president of SW Resources, walks from one building to another on a daily basis at the facility, which is located at the corners of Seventh and East streets with another entrance 1007 Mary Street. There are 250 employees, many using Consumer Credit Counseling’s assistance, working through SW Resources, either in the warehouse area where clients, pack, sort, assemble products.

“Others are with custodial contracts throughout the area. Some work five days and some contracts have clients going seven days a week. Some work at state and federal agencies, some are attendants at welcome centers. We literally have clients working 24-7,” she said.

SW Resources packages, does light assembly, insert folders, bag items and collate inserts just for a few examples according to Klein.

“We’re a whole shipping and handling department within these walls,” she said. “And then we just had the political season and political mailings kept a lot of people busy. We do a lot of printing with offset and letterpress with in our graphics department. We have a start to finish procedure in the graphics department if that is what someone wants.”

“It’s really amazing to see people get excited about a job and take pride in it,” said Annetta Douglas, the sales and marketing manager at SW Resources. “We can do short term work so a business doesn’t have to hire and train temporary workers. They don’t have to clear space for the temp work because it’s done here in our warehouse.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan John Jackson, executive director of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Parkersburg, stands in the classroom of the facility. Jackson stated funds from United Way helped bring up to date technology at Consumer Credit.

Douglas said a food and hygiene pantry at the facility originally began as one for clients. “Now it has grown to the point to where anyone can be helped here,” she said. “A lot of our clients will donate back to the pantry. They want to help just like everyone else.”

Douglas and Jackson said the disappearance of United Way dollars, even a partial amount, is not a good thing.

“I don’t even want to think about it,” said Douglas. “We would not be able to provide job and vocational rehab. The helps to supplement and pay clients a living wage. It helps them to learn to be self-sustaining. It allows them to answer the question ‘what do you do for a living?’ It makes their lives meaningful.”

Jackson said United Way dollars have resulted in Consumer Credit Counseling being able to add technology to its offices which make it easier to provide client services, such as paying accounts for SW Resources clients.

“We’ve been able to make our offices to be more professional in our classroom situations,” said Jackson. “We were able to purchase new equipment to assist clients more efficiently. If it were not for the United Way funds, the quality and quantity of programing would suffer.”

Decicco said with funds to local agencies the United Way supports, ” it’s important for locals to know we have our own intitiatives,” said Decicco. “The United Way partners with FamilyWize and it has allowed us to offer new, free resources to our community members for managing their finances and improving their families quality of life.

“It’s encouraging to see the true impact our partnership has had and we look forward to supporting more families.”

According to the 2016 Annual Health Impact Report for the valley community highlights include $202,133 annual savings on prescription medications and 5,410 community members helped in the year with FamilyWize.

“Now that’s $202,000 and some change which were real savings and real money spent locally,” Decicco said. “That’s $202,000 which local families were able to spend on other things locally instead of it being spent on medications.”

The United Way’s “Warming Hands and Hearts Energy Initiative” increased dramatically according to Decicco. “We had $25,000 plus in utility assistance and was able to prevent the termination of utility services for more than 500 families,” she said.

“Then there are the consequences that often follow, such as financial hardship and eviction.

“Together our partners in this project, such as Department of Health and Human Resources, Consumer Credit Counseling Services and Community Resources and more than a dozen area churches, we are able to provide clients with financial counseling and practical budgeting advice to avoid a repeat of the same situation.”

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