For
Your Church Newsletter - Prepared by Steve Tindall
From
Lutheran Community Services February 2014
Editors: This information is prepared for church
newsletter editors, secretaries and pastors. Your help in getting the word out
is appreciated and will help LCS achieve its mission of “Sharing God’s
blessings by helping others in need.” Comments about timing or content are
welcome. Contact Steve Tindall
(stindall@lcsde.org). 302 654 8886.
Female
Headed Households Under Pressure
Over 30 percent of the population of the city of Wilmington lives
below the poverty line. That means, for example, a family of three is making no
more than $19,530. What’s really eye-opening about this is that 77 percent of
the city’s poor are members of single female-headed families. This has been abundantly clear over the
holidays when we saw many many women in need. For example, we assisted a 49
year old woman with two kids in early January with her back rent. She got
behind in her rent after she had a heart attack. Because of her low paying job,
she could only afford to take off ten days of work to recover, which
illustrates how poorly prepared many low income people are to handle an
emergency – like a heart attack.
More
Female Headed Households
Vy and Claire don’t know each other, but their stories are
amazingly similar. Both have two kids, owned their own homes, and were
foreclosed upon after their relationships broke up and they became single. Both
became homeless after that for about a year and lived with family, in cheap
motels, or in shelters. Both told of the terrible impact this had on their
families. The biggest barrier to obtaining independent housing is to be able to
save up enough money for both the security deposit and the first month’s rent
(approximately $2,000). LCS couldn’t provide that much, but was able to help
with the security deposits so that both families could move into their own
housing. We also helped with furniture and food to ease the transition.
Corporate
Support
LCS received several wonderful grants recently. The first
was from BJ’s Charitable Foundation --
$5,000 to purchase food for our clients. Another $5,000 came from the Thrivent Foundation to UD’s FISH
(Fellowship in Serving the Hungry) program, which provides a grocery club for
low income people out of St. Paul’s in Newark. LCS is a partner in this ministry.
The award money will be used to increase participation and nutrition. Thrivent
also gave us a challenge grant through the Matthew
25: Neighbors in Need program. If we
raise $10,000 by March 31, we will receive a $5,000 match. Your help is much
appreciated!
