State Project 2012-2014

ABRI/Homes for the Brave

Applied Behavioral Rehabilitation Institute (ABRI) provides housing and services to mainly Veterans that are necessary to help homeless individuals return to a productive and meaningful life. ABRI operates four programs.

Veterans helping Veterans

Veterans helping Veterans housing programs offer the comraderie of living in a structured, substance-free environment with fellow Veterans who are succeeding at bettering themselves. Over half of the Veterans who have participated in similar programs have successfully arranged independent housing, nearly one third have jobs, and one quarter are receiving benefits.

Homes for the Brave

Homes for the Brave is a forty-two bed transitional living program available to homeless male Veterans and non-Veterans. The program focuses on individuals who demonstrate motivation to live and work in the community.

Waldorf House

Waldorf House provides nine units of permanent supportive housing with case management services to formerly homeless male Veterans.

Veterans Service Center

Veterans Service Center provides services to any homeless Veteran, male or female.

Female Soldiers: Forgotten Heroes

FS:FH is the first community-based transitional home in CT dedicated to homeless female Veterans and their children less than five years of age.

Homes for the Brave Wish List

State Project 2010-2012:The Connecticut Food Bank and Foodshare

GFWC/CT Honored With 2012 Hunger Action Hero Award

On September 9, 2012, the Connecticut Food Bank presented their annual Hunger Action Hero Awards to fourteen businesses, organizations, and individuals that were outstanding in their support of the Connecticut Food Bank’s mission to alleviate hunger in Connecticut.  The General Federation of Women’s Clubs of Connecticut was chosen for the Civic Hero award for their outstanding contributions and collaboration as part of a two-year State Project. 
The 2010 – 2012 State Project, the Connecticut Food Bank /Foodshare, was energetically embraced and enthusiastically supported. For two years, women from forty-eight clubs across the state joined the CT Food Bank in the Walk Against Hunger, worked with farmers to donate excess crops, volunteered at the Food Bank’s warehouses, collected turkeys and money during the holidays, held tea bag fundraisers, fashion shows, and author luncheons, stuffed canoes and buses with non-perishable food items, and hauled in countless bags of food to their local food pantries. Their goal, challenged by their chairperson, Patty Meglio, was to raise $25,000 and collect 50,000 pounds of food. She urged them, quoting Dorthea Brande, to “Act as if it were impossible to fail,” and added “because failure has no place at our table,” and they proceeded to heartily blast past that goal. At the end of two years, the clubs raised more than $44,000 and collecting more than 63,000 pounds of food. 
As a result of their experiences with working with the Connecticut Food Bank, members are better educated and more aware of the ways that they can help fight hunger in their communities. Though the State Project has changed, many of the clubs continue to collect food for their local food pantries and volunteer at the Connecticut Food Bank.

Connecticut Food Bank and Foodshare

The State Project came to an end at the May Convention. More than $43,000 was raised and more than 60,000 lbs. was collected.

Walk Against Hunger 2012

The May 6th walk in New Haven. Patty Meglio met up with the Womens' Club of Madison and walked with them on a gorgeous Spring day.

Have a Cup of Tea on Us!

Our club has raised a total of $690 towards this fund raiser.

To generate money for the State Project, we invited people to have a cup of tea on us. We wrote a letter that describes our club, its goals, and what the money raised will be used for. The club selected people to target for a mail out from their town, friends and family. We included a self-addressed envelope to increase the likelihood of donation. We then mailed the invitations, including the letter, form, tea bag and stamped self-addressed envelope. The Northford Women's Club had a tea party and stuffed and addressed more than one hundred envelopes for Have a Cup of Tea on Us! It was a fun time enjoyed by all and an easy fund raiser.

I was able to secure a donation from Harney and Sons Teas for free tea bags for this fundraiser. Recently, I spoke to Mr. Harney personally and found that he is very concerned about the increasing need for food assistance in our state. The only expense would be the stationary, postage and envelopes.

Thanksgiving

Both the Connecticut Food Bank and Foodshare are hosting Thanksgiving activities. The CT Food Bank has just put out a sign up sheet for volunteers at different grocery store locations in our area. They need people to collect donations of food and money. Foodshare is once again doing its Turkey and a Twenty campaign. See Patty about signing up or go to the CT Food Bank or Foodshare Website.

Connecticut Food Bank's Walk Against Hunger 2011

State Project Committee members walked the New Haven Walk Against Hunger on May 1st and raised $1055 for the CT Food Bank.

Foodshare's 28th Annual Walk Against Hunger

The walk will took place on Sunday, May 1, 2011 at the plaza of The Hartford Financial Services Group, this year's presenting sponsor.

Newsletter

The April Newsletter, GFWC/CT State Project Chronicle, is packed with photos and information on state project activities, including food drives and fundraisers.

Special Recognition

Club members Florence Pierson and Patty Meglio were invited to an appreciation dinner sponsored by the CT Food Bank.

Volunteering at the East Haven Warehouse

Liz Boissard, Rose Lynch, and Patty Meglio of the Northford Women's Club, and Mischa Campbell and her husband of the North Haven Women's Club volunteered at the East Haven Warehouse. The job that night was to sort meat into boxes for distribution. There were approximately 18 people who volunteered that night and the work went very quickly.

Liz and Rose sort and label meat	Liz, Rose, and Patty sorting meat.
Putting the meat in the boxes.	Mischa and Dave are checking the boxes.

Kid's BackPack Program

On Wednesday evening, October 13, 2010, members of the State Project committee met at the CT Food Bank East Haven Warehouse to help pack bags for the Kid's BackPack Program. In all, 360 bags were packed with food that kids will be able to take home from school for meals for the weekend during Christmas.

Donna, Denise, and Mary pack bags	Bit opens packages of food.
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Mary Ellen	Florence
Donna

Hunger 101 Training

The Hunger 101 training was a great experience for our club. Members got to experience what it is like to live on a tight budget under very difficult conditions. After expenses, we each had between one and four dollars to spend on food for one day. It wasn't easy.

Florence was the grocery store clerk.	There were not many items to choose from, and what she had was very expensive.
Elissa was only given two dollars to spend.