MP Seeking to Replenish the Emergency Fund
Release date: December 3, 2022
Holiday Campaign to Replenish the Emergency Fund
WAYNESVILLE AND SYLVA – Through December, Mountain Projects is requesting community support to replenish its Emergency Fund. This fund assists vulnerable households with serious challenges like avoiding utility shut-off, making unexpected vehicle repairs and emergency shelter. The Emergency Fund is dedicated to supporting low-income households in Haywood and Jackson County who are ineligible for grant-funded programs.
Executive Director Patsy Davis encourages the community to chip-in to protect our region’s most vulnerable. “Every contribution, every act of generosity is a blessing to a person in need,” she says. Mountain Projects receives an average of ten emergency requests per week. Davis said, “This week, we had a request from a family living out of their car. With emergency funds we were able to provide temporary housing while we find a longer term solution for their situation. The community helps us solve serious problems when they make donations.”
Founded in 1965, Mountain Projects was chartered as part of President Linden Johnson’s War on Poverty and currently serves more than 12,000 people each year. Ninety-seven percent of clients served by Mountain Projects are the working poor, disabled, elderly or handicapped. The organization employs 140 staff members and maintains offices in Sylva and Waynesville
As a Community Action Agency, Mountain Projects supports and implements programs designed to improve social, economic, educational, health, emotional and environmental aspects of life for families and individuals in the western mountain region. Those initiatives range from Head Start and food assistance to a variety of programs for senior citizens, and from public transportation to housing rehabilitation.
For information and stories about Mountain Projects’ work in Haywood and Jackson Counties, visit MountainProjects.org and Mountain Projects’ Facebook page.
To donate, visit MountainProjects.org, call 828-452-1447 or send a contribution by mail to Mountain Projects, 2177 Asheville Road, Waynesville NC 28786.
