South Tucson agency suspends services
by Sheryl Kornman on Aug. 27, 2008, under Family, Local, SpecialPrograms that help feed the elderly, educate the working poor and give teens and children a safe place after school will be suspended in September while board members of the House of Neighborly Service in South Tucson look for “an alternative organizational model.”
Board member Dick Kampa said funding sources for the various programs offered at the site, coupled with increasing difficulty in finding volunteers who can offer a “sustained commitment,” have caused the board to suspend all services and programs for 30 days, beginning Sept. 1.
Services include a food pantry that delivers meals to homebound seniors, a twice-a-week senior meal and craft-making program, an escuelita – small school – that provides tutoring, a reading program and gang and substance abuse prevention programs for elementary school children, computer skills classes, after-school youth programs and a tattoo removal program.
Most of the adults and children who take part in the programs don’t have their own transportation and either walk or are driven by volunteers to the site at 243 W. 33rd St.
Kampa said the agency’s programs have been offered in several buildings at the South Tucson site for nearly 60 years. The property is owned by 30 Presbyterian churches in southern Arizona and western New Mexico under the banner of Presbytery de Cristo, a mission of the church, with offices at 402 E. Fourth St.
The city of South Tucson is not a key contributor, although the programs serve 120 South Tucson seniors; 100 children in an after-school program; 800 children throughout the area who take part in Double Dutch jump rope and other self-esteem programs; 23 young adults in the tattoo removal program; and an undetermined number of underemployed and unemployed youths and adults in a computer skills program.
The agency has an annual operating budget of about $350,000 for its ministry to the poor and expects to save $80,000 by going on hiatus in September, so it can make it through the rest of the year.
“A new organizational model is needed to continue this ministry in South Tucson,” Kampa said in an interview Tuesday. “At the end of the month, we’ll have a plan.”
He said it’s possible that the agency could merge with a faith-based nonprofit group such as the Gospel Rescue Mission.
A notice sent this week to Presbytery de Cristo churches said that “for the past few years HNS has been challenged with finding enough money and committed volunteers to keep running.”
“Members of the HNS board and interested friends are pledging several thousand dollars to provide funds to help sustain the facility,” the notice said.
Kampa said board members are requesting contributions from churches and others.
For more information call 623-0100. Donations can be mailed to House of Neighborly Service at P.O. Box 7155, Tucson, AZ 85725.
Donated funds will help keep the programs operating after September. “It’s not money down the drain,” Kampa said.
