Open Hearth was featured in Limerick Living magazine as a Non-Profit Spotlight. This feature showcases a local nonprofit in our community to raise awareness of all the good they do, highlighting its cause.

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Groups reach across county lines to help Mont Clare residents cope with flood devastation.

Imagine having no choice but to spend your chemotherapy money on a trash dumpster for the debris covering your property. Or settling in a new country with your family, only to end up with your home destroyed and no insurance.

Those were just two of the situations facing Mont Clare, Pa., residents after Hurricane Ida and its accompanying floods. Nearly two months later, more than 150 households are still coping with homes left uninhabitable.

Fortunately, Mont Clare has concerned neighbors who are eager to help, and two grants will go a long way toward assisting them in that mission.

• Open Hearth, Inc., a non-profit organization serving Chester County and portions of Montgomery County, received $300,000 from the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation to help Mont Clare residents affected by Ida get their systems back up, including electricity, heating, and water.
• The Jaycees in Phoenixville received $15,000 for the organization’s “In This Together PXV Fund” – originally intended to assist with the Covid pandemic, recently pivoted to benefit victims of Hurricane Ida as well.

Soon after Ida hit, a partnership in the neighboring borough of Phoenixville came together with the intent of helping victims on the other side of the river separating Chester and Montgomery counties. Participants include Open Hearth, the Jaycees, the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation, and Karin Williams, director of the Phoenixville Office ofEmergency Management.

“Phoenixville is fortunate to have the kind of strong community partnerships that enable us to lend a hand to our MontClare and Port Providence neighbors in their time of need,” Williams said.

Contacts:

Kelly Raggazino, Executive Director – Open Hearth, Inc., 610-792-9282, ext. 202, [email protected]

Erica Klinedinst, Executive Director – Phoenixville Jaycees Foundation, (717)-683-4274, [email protected]

Karin Williams, Director – Phoenixville Office of Emergency Management, 610-933-8801, ext. 120, [email protected]

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Open Hearth, Inc., a leader in resource coordination and community building efforts, provides innovative programs to support and empower people to end the cycle of homelessness, acquire affordable housing, a means of transportation, workforce opportunities, and achieve financial stability.

The Phoenixville Jaycees provide development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change in their communities and support the good efforts of exempt organizations in and around Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Open Hearth is proud to participate in The Amazing Raise. This regional month of giving is an initiative of the TriCounty Community Network. We hope you can contribute to Open Hearth during the month of October to boost your gift’s impact!  To donate, visit: 

www.amazingraisetricounty.org/OpenHearth

Open Hearth partners to provide rent and utility assistance to those in need 

“I am a business professional and have been working in this great country and never needed help. I can’t thank [Homelessness Prevention Manager] Cory and her team enough for the help and support given during my time of need in my life.” 

– Michael, Open Hearth client 

     Michael is not alone as someone who has been employed their whole life, never needing to access safety net programs to get by until the pandemic hit last year. Covid-19 changed that reality for millions of Americans. Record numbers of layoffs in early 2020 created a new, difficult reality for many individuals and families who faced unprecedented financial challenges. Others became ill or had to care for family members who were ill, requiring an unpaid leave from work.

     At the start of 2021 Open Hearth was approached by Chester County’s Department of Community Development with the opportunity to become a contracted partner for the US Department of the Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). We were awarded a $2.7 million contract in April that was increased to a total of $3.7 million in July. ERAP’s goal is to provide rental and utility assistance to households impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. 99.2 percent of funds go directly towards client rent and utility payments. In a little over five months, Open Hearth has provided over $1.7 million in direct relief. 

     And it’s not just tenants who are expressing their appreciation for the lifeline ERAP provides. ERAP requires the participation of landlords to receive rental assistance. One landlord who owns several units in Phoenixville wrote to us to share his gratitude for the program, and his gratitude for the Open Hearth staff who helped facilitate the application process. 

     As he put it, “I was struggling to survive, my tenants were struggling to pay the rent, and I had to give them breaks—pass on collecting rent sometimes. Everyone was frustrated. I kept on struggling until one day someone told us about Open Hearth and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. I knew that there was hope and that someone out there was willing to help, and this is exactly what happened. I want to take this opportunity to thank our government and each one of you at Open Hearth…for the great job and effort that they put into my case to help my tenants and secure a safe home for them. I was also saved from defaulting on my mortgage. Big thanks to you guys—you made us proud by working hard to improve our society and spread good faith and hope in our hearts.”