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Lena Pope Home
As evacuees from areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina began to stream into Fort Worth, Texas, the American Red Cross and the City of Fort Worth turned to Lena Pope Home to help provide mental health support to displaced individuals living in shelters.
Lena Pope Home was established in 1930 to meet the needs of children and families during the Great Depression and post-war years. Today, the organization serves more than 20,000 individuals, children, and families each year.
Lena Pope Home immediately put its resources to work as the hurricane evacuees began to stream into the area last fall. In addition to the general counseling services the Home provided, one family received a car through the organization's car donation program; two families received assistance through the Home's Holiday Assistance Program; two families received transportation help to and from appointments; and the Home, as an agency, adopted a family by making living arrangements for them and paying their utilities, as well as hiring one of the family members to work at the Home as a behavior interventionist consultant.
A $14,000 grant award from CWLA's Katrina Kids fund will help Lena Pope Home recover much of the costs they incurred providing these resources outside of their normal duties. The bulk of the money will cover the costs of food and housing they provided evacuees. The other funds will cover the regular and overtime salaries, benefits, and transportation costs for about 50 staff who served evacuees staying in shelters and motels. The grant will also cover the cost of a translator who was hired for two young, hearing-impaired evacuees.
"There are a lot of agencies out there that are still struggling and we're just very appreciative that our application was granted," says Angie Gofredo, Associate Director of Development for Lena Pope Home. "We will continue to serve the families from Katrina, but having this grant helps us to continue to serve them. There's not a lot of money out there that is being offered to those organizations that are helping after Katrina. It's great when you see organizations like CWLA make that commitment and support their member agencies."
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