Neediest Cases helps Chattanooga area residents in crisis maintain financial stability

When former Chattanooga Instances writer Adolph Ochs established the Neediest Instances Fund in 1914, he was impressed by a homeless man he met on the road on Christmas Day. As an alternative of simply handing him cash, Ochs supplied the person a job.

Ochs additionally tasked a reporter with telling the tales of 100 native people experiencing poverty or disaster. Whereas the tales made no request for donation, they moved readers to present.

Now an annual fundraising marketing campaign performed by the Instances Free Press between Thanksgiving and New Yr’s Day, the Neediest Instances Fund raised $46,569.86 in 2019.

Funds are administered by the United Approach of Better Chattanooga by way of its associate businesses, and recipients’ tales are informed within the newspaper in the course of the vacation season.

The thought behind the fund is to offer people who find themselves confronted with unexpected circumstances that go away them unable to satisfy their primary wants with one-time help to assist them get again on their toes.

“We work with so many people who find themselves working and attempting to offer for his or her households, after which there’s an emergency state of affairs and earlier than they comprehend it they’ve gotten behind,” mentioned Carmen Hutson, who manages the fund for United Approach. “Neediest Instances assists these people to proceed on the correct path regardless of any unexpected circumstances.”

Final 12 months’s recipients requested quantities starting from $260 to $500 to cowl wants comparable to hire, utilities and automotive repairs.

One recipient, a single mom, misplaced her job as a consequence of frequent absences when her disabled baby, who beforehand lived along with his father, started dwelling together with her full time. The stress of the transition induced her baby to have behavioral points at college, and she or he typically needed to go away work to assist take care of these points.

She requested assist together with her electrical invoice from a associate company, which offered her with cash from the Neediest Instances Fund to maintain her energy from being disconnected till she began her new full-time job.

Kathleen Wright, a caseworker at Neediest Instances associate company Household Promise of Better Chattanooga, mentioned she estimates that only one% of fund recipients ask for assist once more — displaying that usually one-time help is all one must turn into financially steady.

(Donate to the Neediest Cases Fund here)

Waiting for 2021

Whereas the variety of folks requesting help from Neediest Instances decreased in 2020 in comparison with 2019, that does not imply want decreased, mentioned Stephen Van Gorp, vp of communications for United Approach of Better Chattanooga.

He mentioned the decline in requests for Neediest Instances funds in 2020 is extra possible associated to the truth that folks had been making the most of help associated to the COVID-19 pandemic that won’t be out there within the coming 12 months.

“We do assume that the wants are going to extend in 2021,” Van Gorp mentioned. “There’s nonetheless a lot uncertainty as to what the long run holds. We imagine that the Neediest Instances Fund goes to be tremendous very important as we take a look at rebuilding the paths towards monetary stability and financial mobility.”

The 2020 Neediest Instances marketing campaign runs by way of Dec. 31, although folks can request assist by way of the fund year-round.

To learn extra tales of Neediest Instances fund recipients, go to timesfreepress.com/neediest-cases.

Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.