Community Assistance

The miscellany of real life — a bus pass, a pair of work boots, an appliance repair, a month of diapers. Small, fast grants that keep a family's footing when the ground shifts.

The hardest needs are the ones with no program name. A pair of steel-toed boots for a job that starts Monday. A month of diapers. A used transmission. A bus pass that keeps a class schedule alive. No foundation brochure has a section for that — so we keep a small fund that does.

Partners vouch for the need, and we write the check within days. No applications to nowhere, no eleven-page forms, no committee that meets quarterly. The whole point of this fund is speed: a need on Tuesday shouldn't still be a need on Friday.

Some months the fund is quiet. Some months it runs dry by the tenth. Both are fine. It exists for the moments, and the moments are usually sudden.

“They funded my CDL test on a Wednesday. I was on the road by Friday.”