For those who haven’t followed my blog, one of the roles I have is as a member of the Board of Directors of the Emergency Services & Homeless Coalition of Jacksonville, Florida, Inc (ESHC).
The following was received as an attachment yesterday, and it’s self explanatory. I had a phone conversation with Diane Gilbert, ESHC Executive Director, shortly after noon today. At the moment I’m preparing and brainstorming some Black Hat and literal Online Guerilla Warfare tactics to get my message across.
I haven’t had this much fun since I replaced Kevin’s MyBlogLog community avatar with one of my own choosing. I wonder if they ever figured out how I did that over at Yahoo Central.
Read the following and you’ll get an idea of how serious things are.
Me, I’m not saying what I’m planning…but it’s gonna be some great content and video that’ll get attention!
ESHC Members:
This update to our June 12 Coalition monthly meeting is being sent with heartfelt sadness and disbelief: The City of Jacksonville will not be providing the necessary $106K to keep the Emergency Shelter & Homeless Coalition of Jacksonville, Inc. in business. Although the City offered grant writers and monitors, it will not be funding the essential administrative infrastructure to develop the Continuum of Care plan and related strategic planning process and agency coordination necessary to have any chance of being funded in 2008. The Challenge and Homeless Housing Assistance Grants (HHAG) are dependent upon the Continuum plan and submission, and, therefore, may not be in order for state awards.
In addition to doubling membership dues this year and extending grant writing fees to cover project submission, not just awards as in the past, ESHC has submitted private grants and approached the philanthropic community. Without sufficient city leveraging funding and support, however, private and foundation funding will not be forthcoming. We had hoped to have sufficient time to pursue potential future administrative funding from the state and HUD, but have to face stark fiscal realities. We have begun to lay off staff and are finalizing the plans to close our offices. We will be contacting members about final reporting and record storage, and related matters shortly. Details will be forthcoming about agency-specific grants and the ongoing Challenge and HHAG process. Please continue to move forward with applications, programs and reporting until contacted to do differently.
The Board of Directors and staff of ESHC have been privileged to work with you and to facilitate many of the activities of the Continuum. It is hard to believe that we are faced with foregoing $5.2 million in potential funding for our members as they address issues of emergency financial assistance, and the prevention and reduction of homelessness in a city that counted more than 18,393 homeless in 2007 — many of them children, veterans and the elderly.
Please contact John Edwards or Diane Gilbert with any questions or suggestions for alternative funding that we may not have yet explored. In these challenging times for our clients and ourselves, it is devastating to know that we most likely will not be here to partner with you as in the past unless a solution that is not now evident is found.
John Edwards, Chairman, ESHC Board and Diane Gilbert, Executive Director
