What if I told you I discovered a local organization that works on many different fronts. The Broome County Council of Churches is that organization. They have multiple different programs that focus on assisting different types of people all throughout Broome County. These are the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse (CHOW), Faith In Action, Ramp It Up, Jail Ministry, and Hospital Ministry. I’m aware that simply from the names this organization sounds discriminatory to anyone who is not of a certain religion. As an atheist and someone who is very much against an organization (especially a non profit one) that discriminates against others, I would never support them or try to raise awareness or money for them. The Broome County Council of Churches has approximately 150 member Protestant, Anglican, and Roman Catholic congregations, plus an affiliation with three Jewish synagogues, an islamic Mosque and several non-denominational congregations that participate on interfaith efforts.
Let me start off by talking about CHOW. CHOW has a network of nearly 100 partner agencies in the form of pantries, community meals, and non profit organizations. CHOW uses this network to distribute over 175,000 pounds of food a month and over two million pounds a year. They also provide a great resource to people in food deserts. A food desert is an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. The north side of Binghamton is very hard hit and CHOW has a mobile grocery store that drives into these food deserts and allows people to shop directly from it. Last year CHOW recovered over one million pounds of food and half of it was fresh produce which was then sold in CHOW’s mobile grocery store.
As we know, Binghamton has a large elderly population and due to it, the Broome County Council of Churches established Faith in Action, a program aimed to help this population. Faith in Action provides people over the age of 60 transportation, friendship, a sense of community, and volunteer opportunities. They do this in many ways. One of them is “grocery days” which is when a group of elderly people are brought together to go shopping. This creates friendships and helps the elderly get out of their homes. In addition, it also elongates their lives according to Impact Lab, which found that elderly people who shopped every day were 27% less like to die over a 10-year period than those who shopped once a week.
The Ramp It Up program is one where volunteers work to build wheelchair ramps for Broome County residents who are homebound. The program director talked about how the people they help are prisoners in their own home and some haven’t been able to get out of the house for three years unless they were physically carried out by someone else for something important such as a doctor’s appointment. In addition, Ramp It Up works with Youth to teach them teamwork, basic carpentry skills, and community involvement. Many of the youth volunteers end up participating in other volunteer opportunities after having helped in the Ramp It Up program. Here is a video on their site that starts by showing the kind of people they help and the end shows how happy and relieved the man they helped was (https://broomecouncil.net/faith-in-action/ramp-it-up/)
With two full time staff and nearly a hundred volunteers, the Jail Ministry is a program that attends to the needs of those recently released and their families. Never forced upon anyone, they offer religious services for those who want and they preach that forgiveness is reachable. For someone who is incarcerated and probably gets regular hatred directed towards them, having someone who talks to you and tells you everything is going to be okay can be very powerful and important. The Jail Ministry volunteer may be the only person who talks to a prisoner and gives them hope. The Jail ministry also offers classes to teach about life skills, addiction recovery groups, family support, reentry services, and they advocate for one on one visitations. As Adiel shared last week, 14% percent of the adult population in Broome County cannot read at a 5th grade level, and in jail, 60% of inmates are illiterate. By becoming proficient readers, released inmates have better luck at finding a job and have a lower chance of being reincarcerated. For those who learned or already knew how to read can choose to record bedtime stories, which the volunteers place on a CD and share with the inmates’ children.
The Hospital Ministry was the first program of the Broome County Council of Churches and began in the 1940s. Similarly to the Jail Ministry, the Hospital Ministry provides preachings only to those who wish it which can be a great source of hope to the sick and their families. According to their websites, the volunteers can do any of the following: pray with the sick, sit with them, validate their feelings, visit their families, and provide any additional support the patients may desire. They also serve one on one with a diverse group of people that consists of people with terminal illness to those who are almost well.
These are the five main programs offered by the Broome County Council of Churches and I think they are very much worth our consideration of the weekly donation. They do great work in Binghamton and with all these diverse programs we know that the money we donate will be used to assist in the area that is most urgent in Binghamton.
Yann,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about the Broome County Council of Churches! I was very impressed to hear about how the organization, whose name sounds like it would be based around a single religion, is very involved with the religious diversity of Broome County. Although, I do one question. Does the organization equally fund these programs, are or some programs financially emphasized more than others? Throughout this class, we have learned how difficult it is sometimes for a nonprofit to keep just one or two programs afloat, and with this many programs I couldn't the time, effort , and fund the Council of Churches requires to maintain all of them.
However, I do think it was very interesting to learn about a nonprofit organization unlike any other that we have learned about in class, one that takes on many missions and causes. Although a part of me believes that an organization should focus on a single cause to increase efficiency and results in achieving their mission, I believe that the Council of Churches in Broome County's diversity of programs matches perfectly their diversity in founding faiths. By helping all kinds of people in need, I think this nonprofit is making a meaningful difference in Broome County .
Just before I began my freshman year at Binghamton University, I participated in the Center for Civic Engagement’s Welcome Week Program. I spent three days volunteering in the community and learning more about this place that I would be my home for the next four years. Through this project, I worked with the Broome County Council of Churches, specifically with CHOW and Ramp It Up. I was able to get a quick glance into how this organization impacts the Greater Binghamton area. I was, and still am, very impressed by the efficiency, quality, and comprehensiveness of their organization. I am happy you chose to think local and highlight this organization. That being said, I still do have slight apprehensiveness towards donating our class money to a religiously-based group. Even though this organization works with groups and people of other denominations, I still wonder about their values and what/who they choose to support. What are their views when it comes to supporting the needs of LGBTQ+ residents? When they go into the local jail, do they proselytize or focus more on general self-growth? Some religious sects do not support certain kinds of surgeries and operations. Would people recovering from these health ailments still be visited by the BCCC's hospital ministry? These are questions that if answered would help me decide my vote, as I want to donate to an organization that shares my values and beliefs. I also want to make sure that no one else in the class would feel slighted or hurt by committing our money to a group that may not support themselves and their rights. At the core, this is still a religious organization. That does not make the organization unworthy of our funding by any means, and like I’ve mentioned before, I had a great experience when I volunteered at BCCC. However, this aspect, for me at least, signals that I would like to hear more information on the group before committing our resources.
ReplyDeleteYann,
ReplyDeleteWhen I began reading your blog post I was surprised that someone so removed from religious organizations would be pitching one. But, after reading your post and hearing your presentation I can understand why you did it. The Council of Churches provides necessary services to the community without discrimination. The two most important in my opinion are definitely the CHOW program and the Jail Ministry.
I remember the needs assessment we had to read for class showed the poor nutritional health the residents of Broome endure. According to the needs assessment the “…obesity rates among adults in Broome County [alone have increased] from 24.5% in the 2008-2009 survey to 30.4%”. I’m glad that a local organization is working towards ending that problem by providing citizens with healthy food when there is none near them. According to there tax report they allocate over 3 million dollars to this program. Its leagues above the other programs in terms of funding. This impressed me and worried me. I was impressed that a local organization had so many resources to help its community in significant ways, but I was a bit distressed when I saw how much better funded it is compared to other programs the council offers, especially the Jail Ministry.
The Jail Ministry provides an excellent service for not just ex-criminals hoping to better themselves, but the family and friends of those ex-criminals. Religion often provides a community of support that can people out of the darkest of moments. When my mother lost her mother, she was heartbroken, but our Catholic community helped see her through it. Not, only that, but Broome county is a high crime area. If we want to solve this issue, we need to provide criminals with the tools to better themselves and leave behind a life a crime. That is why I am a bit distressed at how little funding this program receives. But I know this organization will do its best with the resources it has.
That is why believe so many people supported you group Yann. Not just because of the great presentation you gave, but because it was a charity that does so many different things for Broome and does those things so well.
Reference: https://donorswhocare.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CFSCNY-Needs-Assessment-Broome-County.pdf
- Anthony Zavala