CEO Quarterly 2

The first quarter of 2010 came fast and furious with Westbay responding to the Trafalgar East Apartments fire in February, the first floods in March and the historic flooding in April.

Within 48 hours of the fire, we established a monetary relief fund and donations drop-off center for food and clothing. A constant stream of donations continued for weeks, totaling $14,841.50 in money and gift cards distributed to the residents.

In March, Westbay assisted 47 households that experienced flood damage. As we moved into April and the rains persisted, flood warnings began taking shape and we didn’t waste any time planning for the additional needs of the community. Within hours of the rivers cresting and evacuations underway, Westbay provided the main Red Cross shelter in Kent County with food, water, clothing and other vital supplies.

During the floods and the days after, we worked closely with FEMA, EMA, and local disaster responders and officials to coordinate efforts and address shifting demands. Our case managers were deployed seven days a week, first at the Red Cross shelter during rescue and later at the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center. They eventually assisted 737 people in 343 households with lodging, food, clothing, gift cards or Salvation Army vouchers.

We have learned that the disaster work is very hard and that it takes the efforts of many good agencies - FEMA, EMA, RIVOAD, 211, the Red Cross, local and state government, faith-based groups and the Community Action Agencies - to provide the assistance needed by those most affected. Over the next few months, Westbay will continue to work in the Long Term Recovery phase of the disaster as well as work with all of those other organizations to plan to be ready for the next one.

The Adult Academy worked will be graduating 77 GED students in the next quarter at a ceremony held at Warwick City Hall. The staff has also worked to create a distance learning component so that students can access our program from any site that has a computer and a college prep component to provide students with an opportunity to increase math and reading skill levels in anticipation of taking college level courses.

I’m also pleased to announce the director of Elder and Family Case Management, Paula Dunne, LCSW was selected as Social Worker of the Year, in the Aging category, by the local chapter of The National Association of Social Workers.

This spring the Westbay Children's Center was the site of the Pepsi Company's Refresh Neighborhoods project.
Dozens of Pepsi employees tackled the clean up and renovation of our pre-school playground. The group in one swift effort dismantled the Center's large climbing structure that had become unsafe because of years of wear and tear by hundreds of very active kids. Now our concern is how do we replace the structure?

Thanks to Pepsi, the Children's Center is participating in a national competition for funding for the playground equipment. Please take a moment and vote for our project on-line at www.pepsirefresheverything.com.
You can vote up to 10 times each day until July 31.

With summer here, the community garden is in full swing and having a tremendous start to the season as we have expanded the garden, planted raspberry bushes and black raspberry bushes, partnered with the URI Master Gardeners, hosted a couple of field trips, started an apiary (bee hives).

Farmer Steve Stycos has been harvesting a wonderful variety of fresh, organic produce for the food pantry, and the farm stand is open for the season every Saturday until October 30, 9:00-12:00 at our new, more visible location at the Buttonwoods Community Center. We also have organic eggs from the CFO’s family farm and hope to add more fresh items. There will be small events each week at the farm stand.

Please continue to check Westabay's website for the latest news and updates about our services. We thank you for your support. Have a safe and happy summer.

Warm regards,

Jeanne