9/10/2009 6:00:00 AM Local NINA fund hits $100K mark
Joe Sullivan, of Joining Forces for Families, oversees the NINA fund from his office in Netherwood Knoll.
NINA by the numbers
January 2003 - founded
$100,000 - amount donated to locals in need since 2003
$24,000 - expected donations in 2009
60 - average number of families helped each year
80 - anticipated number of families receiving funds in 2009
30 percent - increase in donations in 2009 versus 2008
The fund is open to families with at least one child under 18 who reside in the Oregon School District. Sullivan said up to 95 percent of donations are used to help pay rent or utility bills for residents facing eviction or having their power turned off.
In late August, the Neighbors In Need of Assistance fund, or NINA, hit a milestone when it topped $100,000 of donations given to locals needing a hand.
The fund was created in Oregon in January 2003, and in its first year, it doled out roughly $5,000. The money mostly goes to residents who are struggling to pay rent or utility bills.
This year, the fund is on pace to hit the $24,000 mark, a roughly 30 percent increase from the $18,000-plus it gave out last year, said program coordinator Joe Sullivan.
"It just shows you how the economy is hurting people all over the place," Sullivan said. "We're hearing from people who have never had to ask for help in our lives... but suddenly a husband or a wife is unemployed, and they need some assistance."
Sullivan is a social worker for Joining Forces for Families, a service provided by Dane County's Department of Human Services.
Countywide, there are 14 JFF workers like Sullivan stationed in Madison neighborhoods and surrounding cities and towns, said Ron Chance, the county's community programs manager. Several communities have programs like NINA, which serves as a clearinghouse for donations from local churches, schools, businesses and individuals.
Oregon stands out, Chance said, as it trails only DeForest for the most money raised in recent years. (DeForest has raised $280,000 in 10 years).
"Oregon is a special place," he said. "For a community of that size (to reach $100,000 in less than seven years), that's amazing," he said.
Sullivan, who works from an office in Netherwood Knoll Elementary School, started as the JFF worker in in 1995. Back then, he'd call up local churches for donations when a family needed help, but that case-by-case approach was "cumbersome," he said.
Eventually, Sullivan and leaders from Holy Mother of Consolation, First Presbyterian, People's United Methodist and St. John's Lutheran churches decided to form NINA.
Since then, two more churches - Hillcrest Bible and Community of Life - have joined in, and the congregations annually give several thousand dollars a year to NINA.
Local schools chip in thousands each year, too. Kids at Prairie View and Netherwood Knoll elementary schools raise several thousand each year with their annual NINA Fun Run. Kids at Netherwood also raised $3,000 in May by bringing in spare change to school. Math classes at Oregon High School have done the same, and other schools have led big donation drives in the past, Sullivan said.
Oregon Community Bank and Trust also donates $1,000 annually, and individual donations help, too, he said.
The fund's success comes while county social services have sustained cuts, Sullivan noted.
When he started here in 1995, Sullivan was assigned to just Oregon. Now he also covers Belleville, McFarland and Monona to make up for cuts in the JFF budget.
Last week, he said the proposed county budget for 2010 could eliminate two more JFF workers, though he's not sure if his position is on the chopping block.
But as public money dwindles amid a bad economy, funds like NINA are gaining steam, Chance noted.
"There's really a sense of people coming forward and saying, 'We want to take care of our own,'" he said.
And Oregon's a prime example, he added.
"It's really a testament to the community, to just how generous they are to people in need," he said.
