Category: Newsletters

Letter from the Executive Director – Fall 2024

Posted on December 10, 2024 by - Newsletters

Shaun Pritchard

UCAN CONTINUES ADAPTING TO MEET URGENT NEEDS

I am always excited to share the news of new programs and initiatives that UCAN is offering. This newsletter has articles describing two new services for UCAN.

Shaun PritchardThis year we have offered a pilot Diaper Distribution program, generously supported by the Community Action Partnership of Oregon and PDX. The program helps the many families of babies and infants who struggle to pay for diapers and wipes. This year, we served about 750 Douglas County families, more families than were served in any other county, keeping our youngest healthier and happier. The pilot program wraps up in February, and we hope that it will be extended.

We will be starting a new nurse home visiting service in early 2025. Through Family Connects, all new parents in Douglas County will have the opportunity to have a UCAN nurse meet with them to address concerns and connect them with resources. The program is voluntary, free, and requires no insurance.

While excited about these new efforts, I also hope you can help us better address some very basic needs. Feeding Umpqua, our Douglas County Food Bank, lacks the food needed to best address hunger at this time. More families than ever are struggling to eat three meals daily. Cash and food donations to Feeding Umpqua will help us to better nourish our neighbors.

We have received some funds to operate a warming shelter in Roseburg, but the amount will only allow us to operate on the coldest winter nights. Those lacking shelter are much more likely to suffer hypothermia and frostbite. We are looking for volunteers to work at the shelter, and donations will allow us to operate the shelter on more freezing nights.

As the year comes to a close, I want to thank all of the many people and agencies who have supported our efforts, whether through partnerships, donations, volunteering or otherwise. We could not do this work without all of you. I wish you all the happiest of holidays!

Food Needed Now

Posted on December 10, 2024 by - Newsletters

Food Needed Now

Hunger and poor nutrition are serious problems in Douglas County. Folks with less resources often have to skip meals. When they do eat, they typically rely on cheap, nutrient poor foods, like highly-processed, convenience foods, to get by. We all know what it feels like to be “hangry.” Lack of food not only leaves us irritable, it makes it hard to focus on the job and at school. Hunger can lead to a number of lifelong health issues.

Food Needed Now

As the costs of food continues to rise, more people than ever are in need of emergency food. A substantial portion of Douglas County is food insecure, with a higher proportion of children lacking adequate food. In 2021, 16.8% children alone were food insecure in Douglas County. In 2022, the percentage of children who are food insecure in Douglas County increased substantially, to a worrisome 23.3%. That means we had 3,630 more hungry children in 2022.

More hunger means more demand for the food that Feeding Umpqua distributes to pantries and community kitchens throughout Douglas County. Unfortunately, it does not mean that more food is coming in to the Feeding Umpqua warehouse. The amount of food made available to Feeding Umpqua has plummeted since the end of the Pandemic. This is why support from local residents like you is so important at this time.

You can donate a wide range of foods to Feeding Umpqua. Foods we especially appreciate include: fresh produce, canned meats (tuna or chicken), chili, stew, soups,
peanut butter, nuts and dried fruit (low sugar), canned vegetables, canned fruits (without syrup), cereal and protein bars. Consider hosting a food drive at work, your church, or a club you’re a member of to increase your food donation. We have tips for running a food drive on our web-site: https://www.ucancap.org/food-donation/

Better yet, donate money to Feeding Umpqua. We’ll use your donation to purchase foods most needed by community members. You can donate by going to: https://tinyurl.com/2024holidaygiving and selecting Feeding Umpqua from the drop-down menu. Every dollar you donate provides 3 meals for local residents.

More Support Coming for New Moms

Posted on December 10, 2024 by - Newsletters

More Support Coming for Moms

UCAN already offers a nurse home-visiting program to some Douglas County families with new babies. But our existing Nurse Home Visiting Program only offers services to a fraction of these families. As a new Family Connects provider, we will be able to offer free home visits to many more families.

More Support Coming for Moms

Anyone who has been a parent knows that a new baby affects families in many ways. Parents of new babies can face challenges bonding with their baby, feeding their new little one, addressing their baby’s health and safety needs. At the same time, parents may be sleep deprived, feel scared, or uncertain of how to match parenting styles. Parents also have new financial responsibilities while they may be adjusting to changes in their availability to work.

UCAN’s Family Connects nurses will offer home visiting services to all families with newborns up to 6 months of age, including foster and adoptive newborns. There is no income, insurance or eligibility requirement to participate in the program. At the same time, the program is completely voluntary. Nobody is required to participate.

The program will provide between one and three nurse home visits to every family with a newborn beginning at about three weeks of age. Using a tested screening tool, our nurses will evaluate both baby’s and mom’s health. Our nurses will also assess family strengths and needs, and connect the family to community resources.

A lot of families have needs after the birth of a child. While not all needs are unique, they often feel that way to the family. Even parents who have already had several children can find themselves struggling with caring for their new baby. Our registered nurses will bring the comfort and care shown to improve family well-being.

The Joy of Working as a UCAN Home Visiting Nurse

Posted on December 10, 2024 by - Newsletters

The Joy of Working as a UCAN Home Visiting Nurse

UCAN took over Douglas County’s Nurse Home Visiting Program about eight years ago. At the time, Ashley Pittam Hays was working for the County, so she became one of our first home visiting nurses. Having grown up locally, Ashley obtained her associate’s degree to be a registered nurse from UCC, and then her bachelor’s degree from Oregon Health and Sciences University. She had a variety of positions after completing her education, but soon decided that she wanted to be a home visiting nurse.

The Joy of Working as a UCAN Home Visiting NurseAfter eight years in this position, the work continues to be very meaningful to her. For one, Ashley gets to work with families who live in communities similar to where she grew up and continues to live. While their circumstances may be very different from Ashley’s, they’re folks whose challenges she understands from having grown up here.

Unlike many other nurses, who often work with a patient for less than one day, Ashley works with families for many days, even months. She connects with each family intimately, in locations that work best for the family, has time to really understand their needs, to address those needs comprehensively. Ashley has the opportunity to work with families to problem-solve complex issues. Over time, she gets to see dramatic changes in the well-being of the parents and young children with whom she works.

One family she’s been working with recently has two children, both with serious developmental disorders. The youngest had to have heart surgery while still a baby. Mom, dad and the kids live with several cats and dogs in a remote corner of Douglas County. The parents lack basic resources, as dad just lost his job, and they need a lot of support to understand and connect with medical professionals.

Ashley serves as their guide, helping them find doctors, get to appointments, understand what doctors are telling them, and she advocates on their behalf to ensure their children get the care they need. She checks in on mom’s mental health. She screens the ongoing development of the children. And she works to get them resources, many of which UCAN offers, like help paying utility bills. Ashley says: “Their needs are so great, they were overjoyed when I brought them a single food box, and arranged for some Christmas toys for their children.”

While Ashley enjoys the challenge of her work, she points out one more reason she loves her job. Many employers require nurses to work odd shifts. Many don’t get typical vacation days off. Ashley has a flexible schedule here. She is able to ensure that while she meets the needs of so many vulnerable families, she is able to prioritize the needs of her own family.

UCAN Takes the Lead on Diaper Distribution Program

Posted on December 10, 2024 by - Newsletters

UCAN Takes the Lead on Diaper Distribution Program

This past year, CAPO received an award of $1.2 million from the US Department of Health and Human Services to pilot a diaper distribution program in Oregon. CAPO selected UCAN as a partner agency to offer the program in Douglas County. UCAN has developed a number of strategies to maximize the impact of this program locally.

UCAN Takes the Lead on Diaper Distribution Program

We used our Feeding Umpqua food warehouse to store large quantities of diapers and associated supplies. Feeding Umpqua partnered with our WIC program, which serves thousands of families with young children monthly, making diapers and wipes readily available to families. We established a Diaper Hotline (shared with most agencies serving young children), so families could easily find out when we had supplies available. And we allowed families not eligible for WIC to pick up supplies as long as they could attest that they lacked resources to obtain them on their own.

The response to our pilot program has been remarkable. UCAN has already provided diapers, wipes and cloth diapers over 1,500 times to about 750 Douglas County families. No other county has had such a positive response to its program.

You might think that only low-income families can’t afford diapers. This is simply not the case. In the United States, disposable diapers cost nearly $1,000 per year, per child, and nearly 1 in 2 families in the United States need diapers they struggle to pay for, according to a study by the National Diaper Bank Network. Colleen May-Weir, our Director of Health and Wellness, shares that “many moms have tearfully thanked staff upon learning they would get free diapers in addition to other WIC services.”

Diapers and wipes play a pivotal role in the health and well-being of babies and toddlers. Those who are forced to wear diapers without fresh changes risk developing diaper rash, urinary tract infection and disrupted sleep. Their parents can experience stress leading to post-partum depression and other mental illnesses. Moreover, a shortage of diapers often prevents children from going to childcare. This leaves parents unable to go to work or school.

We expect the current pilot to last through February. At that time, we will see whether CAPO receives funds for another year of diaper distribution. In the meantime, we are very grateful we’ve had the chance to meet such a fundamental need of local families.

UCAN to Operate Warming Center in Roseburg This Winter

Posted on December 10, 2024 by - Newsletters

UCAN to Operate Warming Center in Roseburg this Winter

As temperatures drop, UCAN and St. Joseph Church are stepping up to operate the
Roseburg Warming Center this winter, offering warmth and safety to those in need in our community. The shelter will have limited days of operation, only opening when the low temperature is 30 degrees or colder, or the weather is inclement and nighttime lows are 32 degrees or colder. UCAN will not only offer beds to those seeking shelter, but will also provide a hot meal to those staying overnight.

UCAN to Operate Warming Center in Roseburg this Winter

Holly Fifield, UCAN Director of Housing Stabilization notes: “One warm night can be the difference between life and death for some of our most vulnerable community members.” People living on the streets have a much higher risk than the general population of developing fatal cases of hypothermia or frostbite. Each year, 700 people at-risk or experiencing homelessness are killed from hypothermia in the United States.

Last winter, UCAN provided emergency shelter through the Roseburg Warming Center to 83 individuals and offered reprieve from the cold to 12 additional guests who came just for the warm meal. We even took in their pets, including a duck (pets do have to be kept in crates). Our warming center not only provides a safe place to sleep and a hot meal, but also a community to lean on.

You can be part of that community by volunteering to serve at our warming center! Volunteers are the heart of the warming center’s success, providing warmth and kindness to those seeking shelter and a vital lifeline for the community’s most vulnerable. As a volunteer, you can help offer meals, support check-in procedures, provide company to those seeking shelter, or perform other tasks.

UCAN is actively seeking volunteers at this time, and will offer volunteers an orientation in December. Orientations will last for about 1 and half hours. If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering at the warming center, please email us at volunteer@ucancap.org.

Letter from the Executive Director – Summer 2024

Posted on August 6, 2024 by - Newsletters

Shaun Pritchard

Early this summer, we were asked by CAPO (the Community Action Partnership of Oregon) to take over operations of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program in Klamath and Lake Counties. We knew that without our help, the veteran families might lose SSVF services in the region. These services provide critical supports so veterans and their families can obtain and retain permanent housing.

Though we primarily focus our services to support Josephine and Douglas Counties, we did not want to leave these veterans and their families at risk of losing critical SSVF supports. So we agreed to step in, and within one month, transferred the entire program over to our agency. We have bridged this gap with existing staff, while hiring new staff to operate the program in Klamath and Lake County.

I am very proud of the hard work our current SSVF staff have put into keeping programming going beginning in June. They’ve spent a lot of time on the road, driving back and forth from Grants Pass and Roseburg to Klamath Falls. I’m happy to report that we’ve transferred services seamlessly, with the assistance of CAPO, standing up programming in the new counties with no disruption to services.

This issue of our newsletter also focuses on our Douglas County WIC Program. Though many of our programs have waitlists because of limited funding, our WIC Program can actually help far more than the 3,000 pregnant and post-partum women and children (newborn to age 4) we currently serve. The US estimates that about 50% of those eligible for WIC don’t enroll. Reasons for under-enrollment are varied, but we know that with increased outreach we can overcome barriers to services.

As you’ll read in this newsletter, WIC plays a profound role in improving the health outcomes of women and children. WIC also brings local grocers millions in revenues each year, and thousands of dollars to local farmers. We are working to increase outreach efforts to enroll hundreds more into our WIC Program. I invite you to support this effort by donating to UCAN. You can go to our web-site at https://www.ucancap.org/donate/ and make a contribution there.

As always, I’m very grateful for the generous donations so many of you make to UCAN. With your support, we can help thousands more of our neighbors improve their quality of life.

Serving Those Who Have Served Our Nation

Posted on August 6, 2024 by - Newsletters

Serving those who have served our nation

When America has gone to war, many in our region have volunteered to serve and protect our nation’s interests. Douglas County has one of Oregon’s highest percentages of veterans, and Josephine, Klamath and Lake County are not far behind. Service has sometimes come at great cost, with a number of veterans returning with physical injuries or mental health issues like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), conditions that can lead to loss of employment and critical support systems. Lacking work and networks of family or friends, some veterans end up homeless or in perilous housing situations.

Recent estimates show that about 1,500 of Oregon’s veterans are homeless. This figure does not include other household members. Many more face the imminent risk of homelessness. The VA established the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program (SSVF) a decade ago to work toward eliminating veteran homelessness. SSVF provides case management and supportive services to prevent the imminent loss of a veteran’s home or identify a new, more suitable housing situation for veterans and his or her family. If a family is homeless, the program helps to rapidly re-house veterans and their families.

Early on, UCAN launched the SSVF Program for veteran families living in Josephine and Douglas County. UCAN obtains VA funds for this service through an agreement with ACCESS, a Jackson County non-profit. Through this program, UCAN case managers help veterans:

  • Assess their needs,
  • Develop a plan to obtain more stable housing,
  • Obtain such benefits as VA and Social Security Disability that help cover the cost of housing,
  • Obtain other needed services through referrals to other agencies,
  • Obtain temporary cash assistance to meet urgent needs.

Having successfully operated SSVF programming in Douglas and Josephine County, UCAN was recently asked to take over the program in Klamath and Lake County. Though these counties are not within our primary service area, we wanted to ensure that veterans in these two counties did not lose the supports offered through SSVF. Working with the Community Action Partnership of Oregon, the state association for community action agencies like UCAN, we took over operations in Klamath and Lake County in June.

The transfer has been a heavy lift for our existing SSVF staff. They have had to shuttle back and forth to Klamath Falls, a two-hour drive from our local offices, to transfer files, meet new clients, and begin establishing relationships with local service providers and landlords. We are happy to report that not only have they seamlessly taken over service to 53 families comprising 87 family members, they have continued to add families to the program. At the same time, we continue to serve 83 veteran families in Josephine and Douglas County, benefitting 135 family members. We are so happy to meet the needs of so many veteran families.

WIC Helps All Thrive

Posted on August 6, 2024 by - Newsletters

The United States is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program this year. UCAN has operated Douglas County’s WIC Program for several years, serving tens of thousands of pregnant and post-partum moms and children ages four and under. Learn more about how this incredible program benefits the entire community here.

Imagine you are newly pregnant and struggling to make ends meet. Maybe this is your first experience with morning sickness. Or you can eat just fine, but aren’t sure what foods will best support your pregnancy. Perhaps you have given birth, but are struggling with how to best feed your new one. Or you have a young child, and want to make sure that they are getting everything they need to flourish.

Our WIC clinic on 280 Kenneth Ford Drive offers a variety of services in a warm, caring setting to address these needs. Here, expecting and new moms obtain quality nutrition education. They meet with staff with expert knowledge on breastfeeding. They take classes that teach them about healthy pregnancies, about healthy diets, and about how to make and offer their children yummy, healthy foods so their children develop healthy eating habits. They, their children, and even the children’s dads get free dental exams and get referred to healthcare specialists as needed.

In this time of out-of-control inflation, when so many folks struggle to feed their families, perhaps the most important WIC benefit is that families get healthy food for free. Enrolled families obtain free, nutrition-packed foods at their local grocers. They learn to shop wisely, so they can purchase more with the resources they have. Families also get vouchers to obtain everything from fresh cherries to newly picked beans at farmers’ markets and farm stands.

The 3,000 WIC moms and children we serve annually benefit in countless ways, including:

  • Pregnant moms have a lower incidence of preeclampsia, a serious blood pressure condition that develops during pregnancy,
  • Moms and children more easily access healthcare, improving their overall health,
  • Families suffer less stress,
  • Our WIC program reduces infant mortality and curtails childhood anemia,
  • The health benefits children obtain by participating in WIC improves brain development, leading to long-lasting improvement in academic outcomes.

As alluded to at the beginning of this article, UCAN WIC is good for the local economy as well. Last year, families spent over two million WIC dollars at local grocers and supermarkets. Local farmers obtained almost $30,000 in WIC vouchers. UCAN WIC is a great investment in Douglas County’s vulnerable moms, young children, and local economy!

Though we serve thousands in this program, thousands more are likely eligible. Pregnant and post-natal moms and families with children under five years old who are already receiving OHP (Medicaid), SNAP, or TANF benefits automatically qualify. If you think you know someone who might qualify, have them give us a call at (541) 440-3516 or e-mail us at wicinfo@ucancap.org, and we’ll be happy to meet with them.

Gaining Support to Build a New Life

Posted on August 6, 2024 by - Newsletters

Gaining support to build a new life

Stephanie had made some poor choices in her early years, and ended up in prison in California. After her release, she decided to start life over by relocating to live near her mom in Roseburg. Not long after moving, she met the man she would end up marrying, and soon after became pregnant. With a new partner and a baby on the way, she wanted to do everything in her power to change her life.

When Stephanie first came to UCAN, she and her partner were living in a tiny studio apartment. Her partner was looking for a new job. Stephanie was starting to rebuild her relationship with her mom.

Hearing about our WIC program, Stephanie came to us to learn everything she could to get ready to care for her new baby. Stephanie received free WIC foods, obtained counseling on maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle, was referred to Douglas Public Health Network to receive smoking cessation support, and obtained a referral to have a mental health issue addressed.

Given the challenges Stephanie faced, we were able to offer home visits. During these visits, our staff provided additional emotional support, ensured Stephanie (and her partner) were ready to best support their new baby, and connected them to our utility assistance program so their family could reduce their utility bills. After she gave birth to baby Gail, she enrolled the baby in our Early Head Start program.

While she continued to obtain WIC services, Stephanie and her partner joined a local church. Her fellow worshipers soon came to embrace her, seeing how committed she was to nurturing her young family. She continued to grow closer to her mother, who provided critical support to help with baby Gail.

It has been several years since we first got to know Stephanie. Her family now has three children, Gail (age 7), Christian (age 5) and Holly (age 4). The youngest is in our Head Start program. Our WIC Program Manager says the children are “absolutely adorable.” Dad has a much better job than when we first met the family. And they now rent a three bedroom house with a large backyard where the children play tag and hide and seek.

We are not surprised to see Stephanie and her family doing so well. From the beginning, she had her mind set on success. With some support from UCAN, Stephanie has been able to foster a new family, create stronger bonds with her existing family, and find a home in her faith community.