To best serve the needy, agencies join hands

Nine Hennepin County nonprofit groups that provide emergency food and economic aid to residents have banded together to coordinate and improve services amid rising demand.

For the first time, groups that in some cases have existed for more than 30 years are meeting to share experiences and speak as a single voice. Officials say the collaboration has created new camaraderie and confidence as they try to deal with higher numbers of suburban poor who need help.

"We can be somewhat provincial in staying in our own little 'hood," said Susan Russell Freeman, executive director of the state's biggest food shelf. "Sharing information with each other is huge. ... We can eliminate duplication in resources."

Russell Freeman runs Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People, better known as VEAP, which serves people in Bloomington, Richfield, Edina and part of south Minneapolis. VEAP now helps feed 7,000 to 8,000 people per month.

Leaders of the nine groups began meeting monthly more than a year ago, comparing what works and what doesn't, bouncing ideas off one another and talking about how to do a better job.

They met with county officials who are trying to end homelessness. That made sense because "we're trying to prevent homelessness," Russell Freeman said. They met as a group with food banks that help supply their food shelves. And they won a $50,000 grant from Medica to train their volunteers to assist people who are mentally ill and depressed.

Not battling in isolation

"When things were getting so crazy here, it was good to know we weren't alone," she said.

The group, which provides emergency services to residents of western Hennepin County from Minnetonka Beach and Tonka Bay to St. Bonifacius and Rockford, is seeing more homeless people, she said.

"People say 'Don't build affordable housing, because they will come,'" Weycker said. "They are already here. They're your neighbor. People don't realize that poverty is already here. We have a huge discrepancy in incomes here -- $2 million houses located across the street from an old cabin."

Some of the homeless were working at low-paying jobs and living paycheck to paycheck and then lost those jobs. Others have mental health and drug issues. Many bounce from friend to friend, finally losing even those havens because of dysfunctional behavior, Weycker said.

A grant for mental health training from the Family Partnership in Minneapolis is a godsend when groups like hers rely largely on volunteers as the first contact with clients, she said.

Help for suburban homeless

Group discussions have brought to the surface the need for temporary shelter in the suburbs, Weycker said. Suburbanites who find themselves without a place to stay usually refuse to go downtown for temporary housing because Minneapolis is unfamiliar and people are afraid to be in the city, she said. Many live in their cars instead.

"I have not had one person willing to go downtown," she said. "If they're from here, they know they can be safe here."

Some of the nonprofits run food shelves, and get supplies from bigger food banks such as Second Harvest Heartland. The group met with the food bank to talk about planning and coordinating efforts, and dealt with issues such as how the bigger group can raise funds without hurting the smaller groups, which rely on local donations for much of their budgets.

"We had a stronger voice as a group," said Anne Harnack, executive director of People Reaching Out to Other People (PROP) in Eden Prairie. PROP, whose mission is not to "create dependency but to lift people up," Harnack said, serves up to 500 households a month.

Other alliance members

Other groups in the alliance are the Community Emergency Assistance Program (CEAP), which serves the Brooklyn Park-Brooklyn Center area and part of Ramsey County; Christians Reaching Out in Social Service (CROSS), which serves Maple Grove and northwestern Hennepin County; Intercongregation Communities Association (ICA), which serves the Minnetonka-Excelsior area; Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners (IOCP), which serves the Medicine Lake-Orono area; People Responding in Social Ministry (PRISM), which serves the Golden Valley area; and the St. Louis Park Emergency Program (STEP).

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380