Nonprofit Community Partners

Investing in Change

2023-2024 COMMUNITY IMPACT INITIATIVES

Community Action Partnership for Dutchess County, Inc.

Dress for Success (DFS) empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. All our programs furnish her with skills and a confidence that she carries forever and the knowledge that she can actively define her life, the direction she takes and what success means to her.

Hudson River Housing

The Follow Through Program aims to increase the long-term financial and housing stability of low-income, homeless households during and after their transition to permanent housing. Support is provided for up to a year as households work toward increasing financial security, sustaining housing and achieving other self-sufficiency goals.

The Art Effect

Sparks Studios provides 60 underserved teens (ages 14-19) with film and media arts instruction as well as paid work experiences and a safe space outside of school where they can learn valuable technical and workforce skills, gain access to technology, explore careers in the creative sector, build positive relationships, engage in creative activities and establish community connections.

The Osborne Association Inc

Youth Experience Success (YES) offers wrap-around services to disadvantaged youth in Newburgh intended to create opportunities and teach lifelong skills that will carry them into adulthood. The program will provide positive youth development and educational support (including literacy services), cognitive-behavioral therapy, substance use disorder prevention education and various workshops.

Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh

The Early Literacy Center is intended to improve academic outcomes for youth through literacy instruction. The program operates during the school year, Monday - Friday from 3:00pm - 6:00pm and consists of three structured hours of activities including homework help and tutoring, academic enrichment and electives including classes in the arts, science and technology and sports.

Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County

Green Teen Positive Youth Development through Workforce Training offers youth aged 14-19 to attend programs three times per week. Using Positive Youth Development (PYD) strategies, staff mentor them, focusing on their strengths and interests to build engagement, develop self-efficacy and give them the confidence and social-emotional skills to exert control over their own motivation, behaviors and social environment. Youth learn as they are taught vocational and employment skills.

Culture Connect

Community Connect is an after-school and summer academic enrichment program for K- 5 ESL students in the Rhinebeck and Red Hook schools. The program offers academic support that may not be available at home due to language barriers. Improved language, reading and writing skills increase their literacy and academic performance, building their confidence and improving their social development.

Family Services Inc

The Teen Resource Activity Center (TRAC) provides a safe trauma-informed space for youth to feel a sense of belonging and receive mentorship and support. TRAC helps youth develop their athletic, academic, creative, workforce and social skills in supportive and challenging ways. Staff work with youth to challenge acceptance of violence to prevent involvement in and exposure to gun and gang violence.

Finish Strong Wellness Center

Finish Strong Wellness Program PK REACH! targets five vital areas of youth psychosocial development: R=Restorative Justice/Racial Identity; E=Emotional/Social Skill Development; A=Academic Success; C=Career Readiness; H=Health and Wellness. PK REACH! has a mentorship component where participants that have reached milestones in these five areas can complete leadership training, become Junior Youth Counselors and receive stipends.

Hudson River Housing

River Haven provides emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youth as they work with a Care Manager toward family reunification or securing another safe residence. The Program provides a variety of evidenced-based Positive Youth Development opportunities and learning experiences to help youth overcome past trauma, develop skills and build protective factors linked to healthy development.

Land to Learn

SproutEd Beacon & Newburgh is a garden-based educational program for K-2 students. We maintain school food gardens and deliver lessons during the school day, year-round, that educate students in nutrition, cooking, plant science, ecology and food systems. Our curriculum is experiential and hands-on, offering students a fun, engaging way to apply and develop their academic and social emotional skills.

Literacy Connections of the Hudson Valley, Inc.

Book Buddies recruits volunteers to read one-to-one with 3-4th grade children whose teachers identify as reading below grade level. Volunteers are trained to use differentiated material to help students improve their reading skills and confidence. Classroom Book Buddies volunteers read aloud, using a dialogic reading method to give children a positive experience with books.

NAMI Mid Hudson Inc

Positive Youth Development via Ending the Silence Mental Health Education is a 50 minute presentation to high school students given by a certified NAMI lead presenter & a young adult with a mental health condition who shares their journey of recovery. ETS addresses substance/alcohol abuse, suicide prevention, bullying and overcoming stigma. It raises awareness & changes perceptions about mental health & instills good citizenship skills to help their peers.

Newburgh Armory Unity Center Inc

Educational Programming (2023-2024) is a Saturday program. Pre-K to 8th grade youth take classes in reading, writing, STEM and the arts to develop scholastic ability, life skills and emotional intelligence. Sports programs provide skills and introduce leadership and team building. After school programs range from literacy to STEAM, restorative circles and career exploration. Their basketball league also serves over 250 youth. All programming is free.

Northeast Community Council Inc.

Teen Team is a resilience-building, community-engagement group for low-income, at-risk youth ages 14-18. The group coordinates its own community service activities and cultural/recreation events. It also benefits from education in social and cultural diversity, healthy relationships and other life skills that deter harmful behaviors, chosen by the Program Director.

Vassar College – Vassar College Urban Education Initiative

Vassar English Language Learners Outreach Program VELLOP strives to improve academic achievement of ELLs in the Poughkeepsie City School District, which is challenged to educate these students due to lack of Spanish-speaking teachers. VELLOP tutors are Vassar students (often Spanish speakers) who work alongside teachers to support the performance of ELLs. Thirty-five college students devote up to seven hours per week to tutoring schoolchildren.

Warwick Community Bandwagon Inc

Life Skills for Teens helps develop teens' internal assets. It provides protective factors through prevention, educational and cultural diversity activities and helps transition from elementary to middle and high school. Members participate in community service and leadership skill-building activities. Evidence-based environmental strategies and evidence-based/informed programs are implemented.

Catholic Charities Community Services of Dutchess County

Financial Stability Program provides assistance for neighbors in crisis seeking to meet basic needs. All calls, if not picked up, are returned the same business day. Being able to speak to a person directly, as opposed to leaving voicemail, is huge for those looking for help. All requests for assistance are triaged by the Coordinator & Executive Director and if appropriate are assigned a case manager by the latter.

Community Action Partnership for Dutchess County, Inc.

Crisis Intervention & Case Management provides emergency financial assistance for families faced with an economic crisis and case management support to help them navigate out of crisis and into stability. Families are struggling to keep their housing and stay current on their utilities. The post pandemic recovery will be difficult and lengthy.

Cornerstone Family Healthcare

The Healthy Connections Program provides homeless patients with prescription drugs, medical supplies, taxi vouchers and food. Patients’ health outcomes are subsequently tracked by Harper Health staff to measure program success.

Dutchess Outreach

Emergency Assistance program provides clients financial support for utilities, rent/security deposits and other support during times of crisis and when they need it most.

Fearless! Hudson Valley

Financial Assistance Program (FAP) supports access to emergency financial assistance for the crisis intervention needs of victims and survivors engaged with Fearless! services. The program is intended to increase access to safety and sustainability by minimizing the harmful and ongoing impacts of intimate partner victimization and abuse, including financial/economic injury.

Grace Smith House

Meets Basic Needs is designed to help victims of domestic violence stabilize their lives by providing direct financial assistance to alleviate an immediate financial crisis while providing support and services needed to empower them and their children to move towards building a foundation of financial stability and independence from their abuser.

Hudson River Housing Inc

Housing Navigator program provides emergency housing assistance to low-income households. The Housing Navigator works closely with households to help them develop housing stability plans tailored to their needs. The Navigator may assist them in applying for public benefits, connect them with employment opportunities and/or refer them to child care, health care, legal services and other community resources.

Jewish Family Service of Orange County

Financial Empowerment Program offers one-time financial assistance to families and individuals experiencing a temporary financial setback. Applications are reviewed by a committee based on documentation of the temporary circumstance and the applicant's ability to move forward after assistance has been provided. Funds are paid directly to the landlord, utility or auto-related expense.

Legal Services of the Hudson Valley

Income Stabilization & Consumer Law Services for Residents of Dutchess and Orange Counties provides legal assistance to individuals who have been incorrectly denied, or terminated from, public assistance programs, including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, SNAP/Food Stamps, WIC, unemployment insurance, Social Security, SSI, SSD, Medicaid & Medicare and Veterans Benefits and handles Consumer Law cases, as a means of stabilizing household incomes at a subsistence level.

Hudson Valley CA$H Coalition

Tax Preparation Program provides free tax preparation service for low- and moderate-income residents helping them to claim all available refunds applicable to their personal situation.

Common Ground

The Beacon School Food Access (BSFA) program ensures that vulnerable students have access to fresh, nutritious food. They distribute groceries to students each Friday to ensure that they have food over the weekend. They will also encourage families to participate in their market-based food access programs by providing coupons that double purchasing power at the Beacon Farmers’ Market.

Food Bank of the Hudson Valley

Food for Dutchess and Orange County Feeding Programs will provide low-income Dutchess and Orange County residents with nutritious food when they visit local food pantries and soup kitchens. The grant will fund lines of credit at the Food Bank which agencies will use to secure food. Funds will cover handling fees for donated food and costs for purchased food and will expand the agencies’ capacity and enable them to feed more people.

Food for Kids

Food For Kids currently serves 194 students on a weekly basis from all five buildings of the WCSD. They provide enough food to cover two breakfasts, two lunches, drinks, and snacks for the weekend. They provide additional food when there are longer holiday weekends or extended school breaks. Throughout the summer, they provided breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks to cover seven days of the week for nine weeks.

Northeast Community Council

NECC Food Access Program supports Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants using the NECC Food Pantry and other food pantries in northeast Dutchess. This includes the purchase of staple foods, coordinated distribution to pantries, staff time for multilingual support of pantry guests and management of the client choice pantry model at NECC. The program includes weekly Spanish language case management consulting.

Pawling Resource Center

Food Insecurity Program provides round trip rides to medical appointments for Pawling residents. Clients can also access rides to a local grocer, the food pantry or receive a food delivery if they are homebound. All services are offered Monday through Friday at the client's request and the second Saturday of each month the food pantry is open from 10 am to 3 pm (no rides/deliveries on Saturdays).

Poughkeepsie Farm Project

PFP Foodshare Program works to eliminate food apartheid and create food sovereignty in our community by distributing fresh, wholesome produce to community members who do not have access to this local food source due to social and racial injustice. We do this through donations to local emergency food partners and free produce distributions by PFP educators

Hudson River Housing, Inc.

HRH's VetZero Program provides housing assistance to address the needs of low-income veterans who are homeless or are at imminent risk of homelessness. Services ensure that veterans are quickly placed in stable housing and includes outreach, housing counseling, assistance with initial housing costs, transportation and service linkages to help them sustain housing or obtain entitled benefits.

Legal Services of the Hudson Valley

Civil Legal Services for Veterans and Military Families, Dutchess & Orange program will offer free, comprehensive civil legal services to veterans and military family members living in Dutchess and Orange Counties, across a range of its practice areas: Public Benefits/Income Stabilization; Housing/Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention & Intensive STEHP Casework Services; Domestic Violence/Family Law; Disability Law; Elder Law; LGBTQ; Veterans & Military Families Law.

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