ROBERT S. CROSS / Tulsa World
Owasso Community Resources provides assistance to
residents of Collinsville and Owasso in need. Lori Lane, Marian
Nichols and Jeanette North are pictured in the agency’s food
pantry. |
The nonprofit agency, 109 N. Birch St., Suite 109, offers utility assistance, counseling, life enrichment education, a food pantry and other services to Owasso and Collinsville residents in need.
And it depends on its full-time Executive Director Jeanette North, its part-time office and programs administrator Lori Lane, and dozens of volunteers to serve the hundreds of families and children that visit each year.
But as Owasso and Collinsville continue to grow, the number of people in need grows, too, North said.
"Everyone who sees Owasso is always saying, 'Look at the real estate; look at the restaurants,'" she said. "My desire is that as the cities grow, people will embrace the working poor."
Many of the people who walk into Owasso Community Resources have jobs, North said, but they are still not making it.
"We rarely see people who are not working. We see a lot of single moms who say, 'I would never have thought I'd be here asking for help.'"
Lane is on the front lines, so to speak, and she said she sees one to eight families each day. She assists
walk-ins by giving them the information they need to assist with utility crises, food, medical information and more.
"I'm glad we're here to help people know that, yeah, we do have homeless adults and children and starving families," Lane said. "It's everywhere. For people who aren't used to seeing that, it's an eye-opener."
As the holiday season approaches, the agency's food pantry becomes a crucial point of emphasis, North said. Local churches, scout troops, schools and other organizations contribute to the pantry, and the agency assisted about 175 families last year during the Thanksgiving season.
This year, it's expecting to help about 300 families.
And for Christmas, it helped more than 400 children last year with stockings.
"This year we hope to help 600," North said.
But North said the agency came very close to closing its doors, and thanks to help from the Tulsa Area United Way, it survived.
"When I came here last June, we had no money. The United Way gave us the funding so we could literally keep our doors open. The United Way, I feel, really saved our organization," she said.
The agency will receive a little more than 17 percent of its projected funding from the Tulsa Area United Way for 2007. Owasso Community Resources also receives funding from FEMA and corporate and private donations.
One new project that North anticipates starting by the end of the year is a transportation service that recently was approved and partially funded by the city and a state grant for $150,000. It will allow the collaboration to provide vans for a taxi-type service for $2 each way for those younger than 60, and $1.75 each way for those older than 60.
This will help people without transportation go to doctor's appointments and other necessary errands.
"And if you have to go to Tulsa, it's $1 a mile," North said.
"Transportation is so very important. We've had people lose jobs because of unreliable transportation," she said. "A lot of moms who can't take off work can use it to help their children get to doctors' appointments."
And the services don't stop there. Still, the challenge of helping an increasing amount of people in need doesn't get the staff of Owasso Community Resources down.
"I have to stop and think sometimes that for the size of the community we are and the size of the staff - it kind of takes my breath away," Lane said. "But we have a huge amount of volunteers, and we're so thankful for them."
For more, call 272-4969 or go to www.tulsaworld.com/owassohelps
Kim Brown 581-8474
kim.brown@tulsaworld.com
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