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Live United by Erin Haag

There’s a story that I’ve told before about a county case worker. I think about it every year, so it’s worth the retell. The caseworker stopped in to turn in the Jingle Holiday application form for a family on her caseload. I flipped through the application and noted that all the “wants” were winter items. I explained to her that we were looking for some “wants” in addition to the practicalities and the county case worker said, “I know, but this is what they need.” I told her, “I get that, but we can provide this through the Winter Gear Drive, not Jingle. We’re not waiting until Christmas to make sure they have coats. So if we do that, I need to know what they want, because there won’t be anything left.

Totally on board, she said she’d go back. So then we switched to talking abut the Winter Gear Drive. She had known about it, had referred families to us but hadn’t really understood the power we provided for her as a case manager to access what the families she works with need. She was thinking out loud about how to get the family here, helping with barriers of language, child care, transportation. I stopped her and said, “We have the items right here. Do you want to go in and pick things out for them? If they don’t work, you can always bring it back and trade it out for something else.” She looked at me and said, “I can do that?”

I told her to come with me and took her into the room where our Winter Gear “store” was set up. I opened the door to the large room with clothing racks and the handmade quilts and tables of scarves and hats and more. She stared and said, “Shut up! Shut up!” She then took the list and filled the needs for her family that had nothing. Children wearing sandals and no coats, and who had a drafty house. I helped her load the car, and she bounced up and down, in tears at the thought of going back to this family to bring them their “wish list” early. Later that season, that family was adopted for gift giving. The young boy, already warm and secure in his winter coat, received a new basketball to play at the court down the street from his home.

That was one of the early relationships that United Way has built with our county case workers. Those relationships have expanded to the point that we now have case managers bringing new case managers as part of their training to learn more about what we have to offer, and to access our resource library. I’m sure they went home with information overload, but the connection was built. I can send all the emails and write all the articles and United Way can be discussed in all the meetings, but until you see it in action, and realize how you can make it work for you as a professional, it just doesn’t make sense until you see it. I am so grateful for the department leaders who recognize the value in sending their teams out into the field to see first-hand what their families are experiencing, and to build it into their onboarding.

This time, I went through the changes that were coming up with the Winter Gear Drive. Afterward, I turned to our longtime volunteer who had been listening in and asked him, “Whatcha think?” He laughed and said, “Just when I know what we’re doing, it changes!” Yep. We’re working to make things better, tweaking things along the way to reduce barriers and make sure we’re making the greatest impact.

Any good program has changes. Change is good, and change can make things easier. There’s usually growing pains, and you encounter things that you didn’t anticipate, but good programs shouldn’t avoid improving programs ands services just to avoid those pain points. Currently, we’re working on improving the Winter Gear Distribution. We know what we serve around 100 to 150 families each year. We’re also very aware of the limitations of our programs. We knew there were families that didn’t always find what they needed.

We struggled last year to keep up, to keep track of who needed what, and not having enough of the right sizes, etc. Some distribution days were packed, with people waiting for long periods of time. Others were dead quiet, with volunteers and staff twiddling their thumbs, wondering what to do. So, given the success of the appointment system with the Welcome Pantry, we decided to utilize that for the Winter Gear Drive. Next week, the online system will open up for distribution days. Families will fill out their intake form ahead of time. This allows us to not only try our best to have items in stock, but to be able to follow up with school social workers to fill needs later.

Along with these changes, we also worked to define who our target population was. We wanted to make sure we were serving the range of those most in need. This discussion was actually held at the end of our distribution last year, and we revisited the parameters set back then. They haven’t changed, so I think we landed on the right place. We decided that the Winter Gear Distribution should be for families that are 200% of the poverty guidelines. For a family of four, that’s a family making a little over $4,000 a month. Any family that is already receiving assistance is automatically going to fall within these guidelines, but the guidelines will also cover someone who’s in a target range of “doesn’t qualify for benefits but are still struggling.”

We also worked to define what our priorities are. Do we recruit and call families to come back in for a scarf? Do I write in the paper asking for a scarf, or do we focus on something else? How do we determine what is most important? Our conclusion was that we want everyone to have a warm winter coat. Children in elementary and middle school should have the most winter gear — coat, snowpants and gloves, preferably waterproof gloves. Hats, boots, scarves and mittens/gloves are set out on tables, but not part of the intake form or follow up. We will host a “free distribution” day that is no appointment needed, and families can come and pick up extras or search for what they didn’t receive yet.

It’s not perfect yet and it won’t be. But we will learn, we will improve and we’ll work this season to tell the story of needs so that readers like you can share the stories and answer the call to action. If you’d like to join us, donate winter gear or learn more, visit our website at http://unitedwayfc.org or give us a call at 507-373-8670.

Erin Haag is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.